Supreme Court Rejects PIL for National Commission for Men; Highlights Existing Legal Remedies

On Monday, the Supreme Court of India refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the creation of a National Commission for Men to look into suicides among married men. The case was titled Mahesh Tiwari v. Union of India.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta opined that the petition portrayed a one-sided picture.

The Court further questioned, “No question of misplaced sympathy for anyone. You just want to portray a one-sided picture. Can you give us data of young girls dying soon after marriage?”

The Court also noted that criminal law takes care of such situations and people were not remediless: "In cases where somebody is actually harassed by the wife, or it leads to committing suicide, whosoever are the victims of the crime, his family members can file a case, they can prosecute the person. The law takes care of this, there are adequate provisions for this."

The petition had sought the framing of guidelines for married men mulling suicide after being subjected to domestic violence. Advocate Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, the petitioner-in-person, had prayed for the Central government to create a National Commission for Men in this regard.

Additionally, the petitioner had requested for directions to the National Human Rights Commission to look into suicides of and domestic violence against married men. He also asked that the Law Commission of India should study the issue and prepare a report for the creation of the said Commission.

To support his argument, the petitioner relied on National Crime Records Bureau data to show incidents of suicide among married men, arising out of marital stress according to which around 33.2% men ended their lives because of family problems and 4.8% due to marriage related issues in the year 2021. In this year a total of 1,18,979 men have committed suicides which is about (72%) and a total of 45,026 women have committed suicide which is about 27%.

He suggested that the police should accept complaints filed by men in this regard, and refer the same to State Human Rights Commissions till a law is in place.

The Supreme Court’s decision to not entertain the petition was met with disappointment by the petitioner. The Court’s refusal to consider the petition and its implications for married men in India is an important reminder of the need for greater protection of the rights of men in the country.(alert-success)