Wife can't accuse husband's girlfriend of cruelty: SC

Wife can't accuse husband's girlfriend of cruelty: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Sep 16, 2010, 02.06am IST

NEW DELHI: The other woman in a husband's life could universally be the major source of marital discord but the wife cannot accuse the girlfiend of causing mental cruelty to her under Section 498A of Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court has ruled.

No case under Section 498A could be slapped against the other woman -- "be it the husband's girlfriend or concubine" -- even if it was found that she lived with him after estrangement with his wife, it said. At best it could be a ground for seeking divorce, it held.

This decision was given by a Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and A K Patnaik while allowing the appeal of a woman who was accused by a wife of causing her mental cruelty by living with her husband after the couple fell apart.

Significantly, the Bench set aside the decisions of the Jharkhand trial court and the High Court, both of which had held that the girlfriend was liable to face trial in the mental cruelty case.

The question which arose for adjudication before the Bench was a tricky one -- "If a husband was living with another woman besides his wife, whether the same would amount to `cruelty' within the meaning of Section 498A".

Justice Kabir, writing the judgment for the Bench, said, "If such other woman was not connected to the husband by blood or marriage, the same would not attract the provisions of Section 498A IPC, although it could be an act of cruelty for the purpose of judicial separation or dissolution of marriage under the marriage laws, but could not be stretched to amount to cruelty under Section 498A."

Referring to an earlier judgment, the Bench said the SC had categorically held that neither a girlfriend nor a concubine was a relative of the husband within the meaning of Section 498A of IPC as they were not related to him by blood or by marriage.

Under the provision, only the husband or his relatives who subjected her to cruelty could be charged under the section, it said.

Dismissing the case filed by the wife under Section 498A against the husband's girlfriend, the Bench said, "If no marriage has taken place, the question of one being relative of the other would not arise."

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Chinese may be included in CBSE curriculum, says Sibal

Chinese may be included in CBSE curriculum, says Sibal

Chinese assistance needed to standardise syllabus and train Indian teachers”

Students across India may soon find themselves staring hard at the complicated lines and squiggles of Chinese characters on blackboards, and memorising the four tuneful tones of Mandarin Chinese.

The language may be introduced as part of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum, Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday.

He told Chinese officials in talks that he was “willing to include Chinese in the CBSE system as a course curriculum,” but needed Chinese assistance to help standardise a syllabus and train Indian teachers.

“I told the Chinese that I cannot do this unless I have standards and there is a test,” he said. “And that cannot happen unless I collaborate with you.”

Mr. Sibal said the CBSE chairman had agreed to the inclusion of Chinese in the syllabus as a language. Chinese officials, too, had expressed interest in collaborating on setting up such a programme, though discussions were only at an exploratory stage and the two countries had not formulated a method to take such an exchange forward. Chinese officials said they had two training programmes for foreign teachers, either training them in China or sending teachers overseas.

Mr. Sibal said language was an important way to bridge the gap between the two societies. “Let us get enough Indians to learn Chinese, and let us get a lot of Chinese trainers in India who will teach and train young people in schools in the Chinese language,” he said. “That is how, ultimately, we will evoke interests in our kids on China. There is no other way to do it.”

He added: “If the argument with Pakistan [as a neighbour] is we have to deal with them, the argument with China is with much greater force. We cannot wish them away... Unless the human resource collaboration is in place, we will never be able to deepen this relationship.”

Mr. Sibal, who visited the prestigious Peking University on Wednesday, called for deepening exchanges between universities, as well as expanding mutual recognition of degrees. For medical degrees, however, Mr. Sibal cautioned that “levels of excellence” had to be maintained.

There are around 8,000 Indian students in medical colleges in China, who are pressing the Medical Council of India (MCI) to recognise their degrees.

“When MCI was here, they made an offer that those [students] can sit for the exam and pass it, but only 1 per cent could pass the exam,” Mr. Sibal said. “So, obviously their levels of excellence are somewhat different.”

He said the government “could not provide answers” for Indian students who came to China “voluntarily” and “at their own risk.” “Medical education requires a certain level of excellence that has to be attained by students,” he said. “As a minister, I do not interfere in that process.”

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Best Feature Film Award for Kutty Srank

Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek in the film “Paa”. The senior Bachchan has bagged his third National Award for his performance in the film. Photo: Special Arrangement

Amitabh Bachchan bags best actor award for his role in ‘Paa'

Kutty Srank, a Malayalam drama starring Mammooty, expressing the different perspectives of three women about the man in their lives, was the biggest winner at the National Film Awards for 2009, sweeping the best feature film award as well as four other categories.

It led a crop of Malayalam films snapping at the heels of the Bollywood pack, which still took the highest number of feature film awards, with 15 awards being given to Hindi films. That included the best popular film 3 Idiots, the best film on national integration Delhi-6, best film on social issues Well Done Abba and the best debut film Lahore.

Silver screen superstar Amitabh Bachchan snagged most of the attention at the announcement of the Awards by the jury here on Wednesday, when he bagged his third award for best actor, this time for his role as a dying 13-year old in Paa. “To portray the role of Auro was not an easy thing,” said jury chair Ramesh Sippy, adding that it was a near-unanimous choice.

The best actress award went to Ananya Chatterjee for her role in the Bengali film Abohoman, which also won the best direction prize for Rituparna Ghosh.

The best film award in the non-feature category was shared by The Postman and Bilal.

Malayalam films managed to pick up 10 awards in the feature categories, with Oscar winner Resul Pookutty winning an award for best audiography in Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja. Music director Ilayaraja bagged the best background score award for the same film. The only Tamil film to capture the spotlight was Pasanga, which bagged awards for its child actors and screenplay dialogues, as well as in its own language category.

The award announcements were slightly marred by the number of times that Mr. Sippy apologetically stumbled over the pronunciation of names in non-Hindi languages. The Awards returned to a two-tier format this year, regional juries making a shortlist considered by a central team. The “recall” clause, which allowed the final jury to consider films left out by the lower tier also came into play with the Marathi Natarang and the Bengali Houseful picking up awards.

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