New Delhi: People living in nuclear families are “less familiar with Indian values” which leads to more marital disputes and divorces, BJP MP Saroj Pandey said in the Rajya Sabha Thursday. Participating in the debate on the Family Courts (Amendment) Bill 2022, Pandey also said that same-sex marriages are the product of “Western influence” and not part of “Indian culture”.
The Family Courts Act, 1984, allows state governments to establish family courts. The amendment bill grants statutory cover to family courts in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland, with effect from 2019 and 2008, respectively, and retrospectively validates all actions taken by them. The bill had previously been passed in the Lok Sabha and was passed in Rajya Sabha Thursday.
During the discussion on the bill, Pandey — a BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh, said, “Western culture has severely dented Indian culture… There is a clear transformation from joint families to nuclear families. In joint families, many problems of individuals are taken care of by family members. Nuclear families do not allow that. Hence, people in nuclear families are less familiar with Indian values and it contributes to more divorces, marital conflicts… So, there should be more family courts.”
Adding that increasing the number of family courts in the country would ensure that disputes are resolved faster, the MP said, “Today more than 11 lakh cases are pending in family courts. As many families are under distress. Hence, there should be more family courts… Such distress over family disputes adversely affects our culture”.
Pandey also touched upon the subject of same-sex marriages while speaking about “Indian culture” and claimed, “there is another type of culture that can now be witnessed in the country. It is also a result of Western influence. These days we often hear of same-sex marriages. This is not Indian culture…”.
While the Supreme Court had in 2018 decriminalised consensual gay sex, held to be an “unnatural offence” under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code up until then, same-sex marriages are still not recognised in the country.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule had introduced a private members bill in Parliament in April to legalise such unions in India.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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