There is a huge Indian diaspora, numbering nearing 30 million strong and spread in 130 countries abroad. They increasingly come up with unique family law problems, which existing Indian matrimonial legislations find difficult to address. Hence, judicial innovation to carve out individual relief in distinct NRI family disputes is necessitated on a case to case basis. But there are few or no consistent and statutory remedies.
The response from the Government range from creating an NRI Commission, constituting NRI Cells, deputing designated authorities for NRI problems and forming special NRI Committees. However, all such administrative measures soon fade away and resurface with the arrival of the NRIs again in the following year.
NRIs seek resolution of their problems from an Indian legal system not designed and created for resolving their new age issues. Times have changed but statutory Indian laws have not kept pace. Most NRI problems are neither defined nor recognised by Indian laws but our legislators have no time to amend or even address them.
Thus, creating NRI Cells, Commissions, Committees or other bodies will not help. No such authority without statutory powers will have any credibility in the framework of the existing legal system. Parallel set ups without statutory sanction are meaningless. Such administrative bodies will at best be recommendatory officers whose decisions will need judicial sanction. The aggrieved NRI or affected party will still need to invoke powers of a Court of Competent Jurisdiction for actual relief.
The Parliament, therefore, needs to enact new laws or amend existing laws to define the NRI problem and prescribe solutions. One such example can be found under Section 13 of The East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949. Its amendment in 2001, created a special class of NRI landlords who had a special right to recover immediate possession from tenants occupying their premises by a special summary procedure. Likewise, in the family law arena, limping NRI marriages, abandoned spouses, abducted children, overseas adoption and surrogate relationships need statutory solutions. Family laws for NRIs need an exhaustive overhaul. Either, all existing family law legislations be amended or one single comprehensive Indian legislation should be enacted for all family related legal problems of NRIs.
Similar is the situation in the field of property laws. Tenancy, succession, registration, investment & transfer of ownership of property form a bulk of NRI problems. But scattered and outdated legislations serve no purpose. Thus, there is again a dire need for multiple amendments or for enacting a new NRI property law dealing with their problems comprehensively. Special Courts will have to be created and empowered to deal with these lissues. A complete responsive machinery must be evolved under proper rules to be made under the newly enacted or amended NRI laws.
The answer is not in creating toothless bodies. Only enacting appropriate NRI laws, making corresponding procedural rules to implement them and vesting authority in Competent Courts to adjudicate NRI disputes will provide an effective remedy. This must naturally be done on an all India basis because piecemeal State legislations will not do.
The response from the Government range from creating an NRI Commission, constituting NRI Cells, deputing designated authorities for NRI problems and forming special NRI Committees. However, all such administrative measures soon fade away and resurface with the arrival of the NRIs again in the following year.
NRIs seek resolution of their problems from an Indian legal system not designed and created for resolving their new age issues. Times have changed but statutory Indian laws have not kept pace. Most NRI problems are neither defined nor recognised by Indian laws but our legislators have no time to amend or even address them.
Thus, creating NRI Cells, Commissions, Committees or other bodies will not help. No such authority without statutory powers will have any credibility in the framework of the existing legal system. Parallel set ups without statutory sanction are meaningless. Such administrative bodies will at best be recommendatory officers whose decisions will need judicial sanction. The aggrieved NRI or affected party will still need to invoke powers of a Court of Competent Jurisdiction for actual relief.
The Parliament, therefore, needs to enact new laws or amend existing laws to define the NRI problem and prescribe solutions. One such example can be found under Section 13 of The East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949. Its amendment in 2001, created a special class of NRI landlords who had a special right to recover immediate possession from tenants occupying their premises by a special summary procedure. Likewise, in the family law arena, limping NRI marriages, abandoned spouses, abducted children, overseas adoption and surrogate relationships need statutory solutions. Family laws for NRIs need an exhaustive overhaul. Either, all existing family law legislations be amended or one single comprehensive Indian legislation should be enacted for all family related legal problems of NRIs.
Similar is the situation in the field of property laws. Tenancy, succession, registration, investment & transfer of ownership of property form a bulk of NRI problems. But scattered and outdated legislations serve no purpose. Thus, there is again a dire need for multiple amendments or for enacting a new NRI property law dealing with their problems comprehensively. Special Courts will have to be created and empowered to deal with these lissues. A complete responsive machinery must be evolved under proper rules to be made under the newly enacted or amended NRI laws.
The answer is not in creating toothless bodies. Only enacting appropriate NRI laws, making corresponding procedural rules to implement them and vesting authority in Competent Courts to adjudicate NRI disputes will provide an effective remedy. This must naturally be done on an all India basis because piecemeal State legislations will not do.
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