Bowing to pressure from women's activists, the government has made some crucial amendments to divorce laws, giving women half a share in the husband's residential property irrespective of whether it was acquired before or during the marriage. The amendment was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The wife's share in other assets owned by her husband - movable and immoveable property - has been left to the discretion of the...

-Express News Service Bowing to pressure from opposition parties and women’s rights organisations, the union cabinet today cleared some more amendments to the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill to give women a clearly-defined share in their husband’s “immovable residential property” — including that acquired before marriage — in divorce cases. If passed, the amended Bill would allow “equal share of residential property” to the wife and children. The wife’s share will be decided...

-The Hindu Unnerved by the Indian stand, IT monopolies are propagating the myth that a multilateral governance structure will kill the decentralised, multi-stakeholder nature of the Internet and lead to ‘government control' Last year, in a statement to the U.N. General Assembly, India sought the creation of a U.N. Committee on Internet-Related Policies (CIRP) in order to democratise global Internet governance, which at present is either U.S.-controlled, or subject to the policies...

The amendment to the Marriage Laws Bill needs to be redrafted to ensure, among other things, greater economic rights for divorced women. SINCE the 1950s, successive amendments to different personal laws on marriage and divorce have mainly focussed on enlarging the grounds for divorce. In the 1960s and 1970s, cruelty and desertion and thereafter mutual consent were added as grounds for divorce in the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) and the...

Diluting women's share in marital property in the event of divorce, the government has sought to restrict the provision for `immoveable property' to residential assets, a move opposed by women's rights activists. The marriage amendment bill seeks to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, legislating a women's right to marital property acquired during the subsistence of marriage. The amendment cleared by the Union Cabinet recently...