“Radical judgements and sick minds”- 16 July 2014.
‘What next?’ Men would say!
Recently the Bombay High Court ruled that regularly coming home late by the husband amounted to cruelty by the husband. The husband has a duty to at least inform the wife that he would be late in coming home by telephone at least- the eminent judges Justice P.B Mazumdar and Justice R.V.More opined while delivering the judgement in a case of Deeplaxmi versus her husband. The Pune Family court had earlier dissolved the marriage on the petition of her husband and she later appealed to the Bombay High Court who reversed the judgement. Last month there was another landmark judgement by the Principal Judge of the Family court Mumbai Dr. Laxmi Rao that ‘forcing the wife to wear a saree’ amounted to mental cruelty.
Such landmark judgements are welcome and heartening to women who have been suffering insults and humiliations at the hands of husbands since centuries. It is time that mental cruelty gets defined more and more in the minds of men and they should begin to understand the nature of mental cruelty that women suffer at their hands. The onus it seems has fallen on the judiciary to reform society by doling out very radical interpretations of mental cruelty to the chagrin of men. For if society does not improve in its perceptions of women and their legitimate status people will have to be reminded by the courts.
I would agree that society has failed and is failing in its treatment of women. Women continue to be assaulted and violated against her human rights. Girls get teased and bullied by boys and men alike. Wives get neglected and exploited by powerful husbands who control the purse strings. Women employees get harassed and victimised on the job by senior men. Women are not safe on the roads and not safe at home too. There is no place for women in this world. Not in India at least.
The centuries old mindset of men, of treating women as second class citizens, of taking them for granted and of ill treating them is being set right by the courts of law. The Indian courts have been progressive and laws have been modified with changing times. Women now enjoy many rights by law but the problem is of implementation and of in-laws and the outlaws. Laws set the guidelines for people to change and live their lives according to them but not many men would like to be law abiding. Most would like to skirt the law or outright break it gladly without a qualm in their thick heads. Whether it is economic corruption or social corruption a polluted mind would not hesitate to stop at anything.
The outlaws are outlandish and barbaric in their thinking. They still live in the dark ages where the consciousness has not expanded beyond the animal level. Animal too live by their instinctual laws which have their do’s and don’ts but these outlandish men surpass the brutality of animals too -as they follow no laws and live by their own. They are casual and callous in their treatment of women taking advantage of her low social status. They have sick minds but strangely pride themselves on their superiority. This psychopathology needs to be highlighted time and again.
As the Courts of law turn out radical judgements men exclaim with shock ‘Oh dear! What next! Do we have to listen to the women now? Better not to marry. The courts are breaking up the beautiful and holy family system of India the Great! Are the courts going to run our families for us? These rotten women are against the family system as they want too much of equality and liberty. They want license to do anything and everything. We need to control them. If we don’t who will?’
Who will control the women is a big and intelligent question men would love to think. For these ignorant men do not understand that women are equally intelligent, thinking and independent human beings in their own right. They have their own self respect, dignity and constitutional rights as free citizens of democratic India. They do like to be ill-treated and violated. They do not like to be insulted and humiliated. They will not tolerate nonsense any more. Men who are shocked by these judgements will be forced to listen to the courts seriously and abide by the law. If men do not understand this it is going to be their nemesis.
