We all know that law is an ass and at
the risk of being taken into contempt, I ask with a lot of pain in my
heart a question “what about those who make law look like an ass?”
See the news report (URL at end of this
post). Logic defeats me as to why and how a dead man and his estate
is liable towards his ex-wife with whom he has received divorce and who
has re-married and with help of second husband is taking care of the child she had with the
deceased. The report does not talk of it, but she might have more kids with second husband too.
Just because the man did not re-marry
is no reason to entitle the ex-wife with the claim amount of man's
insurance. That there was a case around it, I am sure there were other
claimants to the man's estate (life insurance) whom the court has
neglected.
I understand that the man has a child
with the woman. But she re-married after divorce. Why doesn't the
second husband be held responsible for the child? Why was the child
not in the custody of the man for the child to enjoy the estate of
his father? What about the dead man's parents and siblings?
Besides these questions I intend to
draw your attention to some possible impacts on the society if this
judgment becomes a sort of precursor (God forbid):
- With this judgment in hand, a woman gets all the incentive she wants to murder her ex-husband and enjoy lavish with her next man
- The rights of parents over their boys, whom they nurture, educate get relegated to mere talk while someone who divorced their boy enjoys the man's hard earned money
- Probably men like me will abstain from taking any life insurance policy henceforth and this could be a blow to the fledgling industry in India thereby not contributing to India's economic growth
- Marriage gets even more commercial from being institutional
While these questions are tough and no
straight easy answers might be available, the question on top of my
mind continues to echo is
“What do we call those who make the
law appear like an ass?”
The link to the report referred to above is HERE
