Kamaljeet Singh and his wife have not met their son in seven years. Charged with the non-bailable 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), their son has been legally advised to not return to India from Canada, where he now resides, to avoid arrest.

The septuagenarian couple are running from pillar to post to get justice for themselves and their son, in what they claim is a false case.

Without the physical and emotional support of their son, the couple said that they have become too weak to fight the battle alone and want the legal proceedings to come to an end. "My wife is a cancer patient and also has heart problems. We are growing old and are incapable of handling the proceedings alone. At a time when we need our son the most, he is not with us because of the law. There is no legal remedy for us," he said.

According to men's rights' activists, NRIs who have been implicated under 498A (Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act) are legally advised to not enter India to prevent arrests. They also prefer to not fight the case to avoid frequent traveling, possibility of losing jobs and humiliation at large. While this advice may auger well with actual criminals, it makes lives of those who have been falsely implicated, more difficult. Legal experts say that avoiding legal proceedings for long can complicate matters further.

Anindya Chatterjee, an NRI based in the USA, was recently acquitted from a false case of 498A slapped on him. He runs a group called Justice2NRI that has nearly 100 families from UK, Australia, Canada, Mexico who have all been implicated under 498A.

Chatterjee was slapped with 498 A, a look out circular (LOC) was issued against him and he was also declared an absconder. LOCs are issued to airports and various points of entry at international borders to arrest people who have been proclaimed offenders, upon an attempt to enter or to leave India. Chatterjee chose to stay away from the legal battle for a while, but soon he realised that if he was to free himself of the false allegations, he would have to come back and fight.

"My wife and I had compatibility issues from the very beginning. Within a few months of marriage she went back to India to pursue her career. After a while she started forcing me to quit my job and return to her. I told her that quitting my job would negate all the hard work I had put into my career. Eventually, I was slapped with 498A. I got to know about these charges when I came to India for work and my parents informed me about it."

However, Chatterjee was not arrested at the airport as the LOC came into effect three days after he landed. He confronted the police and was told that he could not leave the country without permission from court. "I lost my job in all this trouble. The police never completely probed and accepted the charges based on my wife's complaint. Later on, I fought the case and was eventually acquitted. I went back abroad and got a new job," he said.

Dr. Surat Singh, advocate and an expert on International Law, told Mail Today, "In India, when a case like 498A is filed against an NRI they face a lot of problems in terms of access to documents. Huge costs are involved in legal proceedings and travel. The FIR copy is not entitled to the accused on time which leaves them with barely any opportunity to prepare their case. This non-bailable warrant should not be issued against the NRI without giving them an equal opportunity to have their say in the matter. Courts should make the documents accessible online so that the accused can seek legal remedy. This would also increase transparency."