NASHIK, March 28: In days of women's lib and equality, some women may go overboard while exercising their rights what with so many laws protecting them. To check just that, the Nashik-based `Purush Hakk Sanrakshan Samiti' has organised the very first `Purush Adalat' in Nashik on Tuesday.The Samiti, the first registered committee for protection of men's rights in the country, will have a panel of lawyers examining cases of battered husbands, allegedly tortured by their wives.The victims would be offered free legal advice by the panel on that day. Each case would be discussed in detail and the complainant would be cross-examined by the lawyers to ascertain whether his complaint is genuine.The committee secretary, Dharmendra Chavan, said the panel would not entertain complaints of husbands who are at fault. Only genuine cases, in which the wife had misused Section 498 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, would be followed up.He claimed that over 2,500 battered husbands have approached the committee over thepast 16 months of its formation for relief. He said, about 85 genuine cases in Mumbai court, 35 in Nashik, 22 in Ahmedabad and 20 in Pune have been filed by the committee.The committee was formed in Nashik on November 7, 1996 by a group of lawyers and journalists, who found that many a time, Section 498 (A) of the IPC had been misused by women to torture their husbands. The committee has been demanding protection to men from the `gross misuse' of the Section as the Section favours women and men have no legal protection against torture from their spouse. The committee has also objected to the ill-treatment meted out to the husband and his family by the police who extract money and use third degree methods of torture.
