“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.”
~ Jawaharlal Nehru
On one hand women in India are worshipped and considered as goddess and the same Indian
patriarchal society gifts women the orthodoxy thoughts saying – oh she is a girl! Her life is
centred around the household, marriage is her ultimate destiny, and its preservation her
ultimate duty. Marriage in India is a sacrosanct agreement, whose ties should not be broken
under any means. Even in the cases where the girl is a victim of cruelty, she is expected not
just by the society but even by her own parents to accept herb fate, and continue with the
marriage, a relation made in heaven. The same line of thought is further reaffirmed by the
Indian judiciary when it sets precedent in various cases stating that the court shall make every
effort possible for bringing about reconciliation or settlement between the aggrieved parties
in the first instance in every case. The decisions of the court to force reconciliation even
when grievous offences such as domestic violence or cruelty are involved, work as a setback
for all those women who have fought for their rights persistently which can be termed as
“forced reconciliation” because the victimised women is not under any circumstances to take
her own decision in preview of her free will as societal pressure sits heavy on her shoulders.
We all know, that Marriage in India is a relation between two families that should be
preserved, but the question here arises to what extent?
Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure empowers the civil courts to refer matters to
Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR). However, as per the provisions of this section, consent
of both the parties is a pre-requisite in order to refer the case for ADR and this is a crucial
issue as it can be observed in most matrimonial disputes that one of the parties is a non-
consenting party. As per the provisions of sections 23(2) and 23(3) of Hindu Marriage Act,
1950 and sections 34(3) and 34(4) of Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Courts are directed to
make an endeavour to bring reconciliation between the parties seeking a divorce according to
the facts and circumstances of a case. Section 9 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 expressly lays
down the duty of Family Courts to persuade the parties to come at a settlement. Civil
Procedure-Mediation Rules, 2003 have introduced mandatory mediation which empowers the
Courts to send matters for mediation even when both parties have not consented to it, when
there is a scope for reconciliation and the relationship between the parties is such that it needs
to be preserved like matrimonial disputes. From the aforesaid statutes, it can be observed that
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