Chennai: The Madras high court has suggested that the Centre should bring a legislation making it mandatory for brides and grooms to undergo medical tests to ensure that they are not impotent or frigid.Such a law could drastically bring down divorce petitions on account of impotence, which the court felt was on the rise.
If pre-marital tests were made mandatory, they could help not only in preventing the impotent or the frigid getting married but also can help preventing people from marrying people suffering from dangerous and incurable diseases such as AIDS/HIV, “ the judge said.
Justice N. Kirubakaran made the suggestion and posted the hearing to September 5 of a petition filed by a husband, challenging the proceedings initiated by his wife under the Domestic Violence Act.The judge said, “This court, in the interest of the public, directs the Central and state governments to give their response to the queries such as:
A) Whether both Central and state governments are aware that failure of marriage due to impotency/frigidity of the spouse has multiplied?
B) Is it not necessary to make pre-marital clinical examination of the parties mandatory to prevent this type of void marriages?
C) Why not the Central government amend the marriage laws to fast track the matrimonial cases filed on the ground of impotency and frigidity within 6 months to one year from the date of filing?
D) Why not the Central government include a provision for awarding compensation and punishment for suppression of impotency, frigidity at the time of marriage and cheating the other partner?
E) What are all the other steps the governments intend to take to address this serious problem?”
The assistant solicitor general and government advocate needed to get instruction with regard to these queries by September 5, the judge added. In the present case, a wife had filed a case before a family court to declare the marriage as null and void against her husband soon after marriage when she realised that he was impotent.
Bureau Report
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