Report No. 90

1.2. The gist of the suggestion of Ms. Roberts.-

In a letter recently addressed to the Chairman of the Law Commission,1 there have been narrated certain actual cases of Christian women who were treated with severe cruelty by their respective husbands, as a consequence of which the women had to undergo a lot of suffering, resulting in their mental breakdown. The letter also mentions many other cases of cruelty by Christian husbands (even of husbands putting their wives into prostitution), and of long-continuing desertion by the husbands, who, notwithstanding their own past misconduct, nevertheless expect their wives to accept them back. Because of the difficulty of getting a divorce in such cases, these women, it is stated, have no hope of redeeming their lives and finding happiness for themselves and their children.

1. Letter addressed to the Law Commission by Ms. Aud Sonia Roberts, New Delhi, dated 15th September, 1981.