Supreme Court’s

welfare committee

married

Gujarat

A hugging club in Amdavad



Ahmedabad

02-1

Thedecision to scrap the family(FWC) has been hailed by activists, both of men and women’s rights, in the city. The apex court had, on Friday, modified its earlier order to set up a committee to examine complaints ofwomen before taking coercive action against the husband and the in-laws. It had observed that the power vested in FWCs was “not in accord with the statutory framework”.As per a July 2017 order by SC, immediate arrests would not be made in cases under IPC section 498A which deals with cruelty to a woman by her husband or his relatives. Jeetu Vaswani,President of Save Indian Family (SIF), an NGO that works with victims of false cases of IPC Section 498A, said, “The committee used to be biased in favour of women because of which men used to suffer. It is a good step by the Supreme Court to remove them from the picture.”However, he expressed disappointment at lack of relief to men. “When SC has intervened in atrocity cases, it could have done so here too. We can only hope that the police work in a fair manner before arresting innocent men.”Poonam Kathuria, director of SWATI, an NGO that works with female victims of violence, said, “It’s good that the committee has been scrapped because they used to be made up of officers’ wives and other people who were assumed to have knowledge about the working of the law.”However, this allegation was countered by additional DCP Panna Momaya, head of women’s police station in, who said, “The committees were formed by magistrates and included retired judges and other such officials.”Kathuria said, “The point here is not whether cases are false, but that they fall through because police are not able to gather enough evidence. They don’t file complaints on time or gather evidence. The department is filled with patriarchy.”Police personnel in Ahmedabad, on condition of anonymity, said that women’s police stations in the city receive 6,000 to 7,000 applications against husbands each year and the number is rising. “When we first ask women if they want to settle the cases or