NEERAJA SARAPH Vs. JAYANT V. SARAPH 14

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals directed against the interim order passed by the High Court in an appeal filed by respondent No.2 against rejection of an application for setting aside of an ex -parte decree, raises important issue as how to protect the right and interest of women who are deserted by non -resident Indians on decree of annulment obtained from foreign Courts.

(2.) PLIGHT of women and their exploitation both inside and outside the house socially and economically is ancient. Mass of literature has been written to elevate their status. But a new social evil is surfacing. Any matrimonial column of any newspaper or magazine would carry a column that a NRI seeks Indian bride without any demand. The attraction of getting a groom and that too serving or earning abroad without dowry, lures many specially from middle class. Even otherwise parental insistence for Indian bride in the hope that his son is not lost forever is not uncommon. Result, at times, is matrimonial alliance by a reluctant husband to assuage the sentiment~ of his parent. Victim is the helpless, poor, educated girl, normally, of a middle class family with dreams of foreign land.

(3.) THE marriage was performed on 6th August, 1989 and the appellant was taken for honeymoon to Goa for few days. Respondent No.1 returned to America on 24th August, 1989, wrote letters to appellant on 15th September, 20th October and 14th November, 1989 persuading her to give up her job and suggesting the various avenues for her career in America. Appellant believing all that tried for visa and ultimately resigned her job in November, 1989. But from December things started getting cold. And when father of appellant wrote a letter in January, 1990 to the respondent -husband about the sufferings of her daughter, it did not bring forth any favourable response and in June, 1990 the respondent's brother came to Delhi handed over two envelopes, one petition for annulment of marriage in a USA Court and another a letter from her father -in -law which reads as under: -