By U D Kamat
During my over a decade-long tenure in NRI Commission, I was called upon to deal with a number of issues concerning overseas Goans, ranging from repatriation of those in distress or faced with job-related hardships, transportation of mortal remains of the deceased to Goa and pursuing death compensation claims for the legal heirs from companies in which the family bread-earner was employed, including those who met with accidental deaths or committed suicide while on duty abroad.
However, the most emotional and, at times painful, were cases of broken marriages and divorce as they often go to ruin family lives including the future of their children. I had occasion to handle a case wherein an overseas Goan already married/ having live-in -relationship abroad, entered into a wedlock during one of his sojourn to Goa, and after promising air tickets and visa, ditched the legally-wedded wife for the rest of her life.
In another case, after allowing the wife to join him, the overseas Goan, in connivance with his girlfriend abroad, started harassing and torturing the wife to the point of leaving her with no option but to return to her parents in Goa and initiate divorce proceedings. The only consolation was that with the active assistance of the Indian mission in the country concerned, I was able to furnish to the civil court in Goa the job particulars and the company profile in which the culprit was employed, for the court to decide on the extent of monthly compensation to be remitted to the victim from his salary.
Yet, in a third case, which is still being agitated in a civil court in Goa, pertaining to a girl, who was married to an overseas Goan based in USA a few years ago, while he was still an Indian citizen. After joining him for some time in the States, he managed to send her back to Goa. She has since filed divorce proceedings after discovering that he has acquired Portuguese nationality and is living with a girlfriend in the States.
Not all marriages to overseas Indians are bad. The problem arises when the parents of a girl of marriageable age are carried away when any overseas Indian, NRI or PIO is “spotted on the radar as a prospective groom”, without bothering in the least to ascertain the antecedents which would have revealed his marital status.
A number of cases of ‘fraudulent marriages,’ involving NRIs and PIOs have come to light, particularly in Punjab. Some of the typical cases reported are:
(a) the groom leaves to the country of his adoption after marriage and short honeymoon in India, promising to send visa/air tickets to the bride, fails to honour the commitment and ultimately abandons her;
(b) after marriage, the woman finds that her overseas husband had given false information about his marital and immigration status, job security, income, property etc.
(c) the married woman manages to go abroad, only to find that her husband does not show up at the International Airport in the country of his abode to receive her, thereby compelling her to return.
(d) the parents of the bride are often held to ransom through constant demands for huge sums of money as dowry, both before and after marriage.
(e) after marriage, the woman learns that the husband is already married and is living with another woman abroad.
(f) the married woman is ill-treated, assaulted and abused, both mentally and physically, and often confined to a room, with no means of access to the outside world.
(g) the woman is abandoned in foreign country with no support or means of sustenance or escape, and without even the visa to stay on in that country.
(h) The overseas Indian obtains an ex-parte decree of divorce in the foreign country without the wife’s knowledge.
(i) The married woman files maintenance or divorce proceedings in the court but encounters legal obstacles such as jurisdiction of the court, service of notice or enforcement of orders;
(j) the girl is coaxed to travel to the foreign country to get married there, only to discover later that the Indian courts have either no jurisdiction or limited jurisdiction to adjudicate; and
(k) the married woman is forced to work in foreign country only to have her earnings snatched away by her husband.
Considering that such fraudulent marriages cause distress to the family and adversely affects the future of their daughter, the Government of India, through print and electronic media, has been regularly advising the Indian families to take the following precautions :
(i) Do not take a decision to enter into marriage in haste with an overseas Indian or get pressurized in taking such decision, without verifying his antecedents;
(ii) Do not finalise marriage proposal over long distance, on phone or through e-mails or whatsapp or in secrecy.
(iii) Do not blindly trust any bureau, agent, tout or middleman for the marriage of the daughter with an overseas Indian
(iv) Do not fall prey to any Scheme to migrate to foreign country or promises of a green card, through marriage.
(v) Discuss the marriage proposal with friends and close relatives, within India or abroad, as it could help in getting vital information about the prospective groom.
(vi) Insist that registered marriage along with religious marriage is solemnised in India for adequate safeguards.
(vii) Obtain complete information such as marital/immigration status, employment, salary, family background, antecedents etc. of the groom and eligibility to take his spouse to the foreign country.
(viii) Before joining the husband abroad, ensure that the wife is fully equipped with all the important contacts, addresses, telephone/help lines of Indian Mission and relatives, if any, in the country concerned in case of emergencies.
(ix) Ensure that all original documents, including passport and visa, are in the custody of the married woman while departing as well as during stay abroad and copies thereof are left behind with the parents.
5. Admittedly, visas to foreign countries are not easy to obtain, unless the husband sponsors the wife. On the other hand, the husband can leave his wife behind in her country on one pretext or the other, while he moves freely often with her money. It is therefore in the interest of every family that due diligence is exercised before entering into any marriage alliance with an overseas Indian. In other words, extreme caution needs to be taken if the marriage of any innocent girl with an overseas Indian, whether NRI or PIO, should not turn out to be a “fraudulent marriage”.
(The author is ex-Director for NRI affairs, government of Goa)
