Make Prenups Legal: Maneka Gandhi’s Ministry Floats Idea Again

Ministry of WCD has called for a meet on the issue of the agreements, claiming it will help further gender justice.

Representational image of a Hindu marriage.

(Photo : iStock)

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has called for a meet to discuss the possibility of making prenuptial agreements legal in India, reported Economic Times (ET).

Secretaries of the ministries of law and women and child development, legal luminaries, social researchers as well as representatives of UN Women, the National Commission for Women and NGOs will participate in the meet.

According to ET, the secretary of the National Commission for Women and UN Women deputy representative Nishtha Satyam and senior advocate Geeta Luthra have also been invited.

The objective is to engage the best brains on a subject which is aimed at providing gender justice.

A top government official to ET

In prenuptial agreements, couples sign a pact on how to treat their assets if the marriage fails. Though the agreements are not considered legal in India, the government believes that providing legality to such agreements will help save marriages and propagate gender equality and justice.

Not withstanding the fact that it has been misconstrued as a western phenomenon, the impact it will have on the Indian society, if implemented, needs to be factored in.

A government official told ET

Section 23 and section 26 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 renders such pacts as “void”, which might be a roadblock in the implementation of the prenuptial agreement in India, the report in ET pointed out.

(With inputs from Economic times.)