Bill against NRI husbands deserting wives in next session: Swaraj

The government would bring a bill in the coming winter session of the Parliament as part of its efforts to check the menace of NRI husbands abandoning their wives, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Wednesday.

"We have already launched an institutional mechanism, where you must have seen that 25 passports of such NRI husbands have been revoked. We are also bringing a bill in this session where some more measures are being taken against those husbands," she told reporters here.

Swaraj, who was in Hyderabad in connection with the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign for the December seven Telangana Assembly elections was replying to a query about Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands abandoning their wives.

On November 13, the Supreme Court has also sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking mandatory arrest of NRIs deserting their wives and harassing them for dowry.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph issued notices to the Centre on the plea seeking that the deserted women be accorded legal, financial help and their estranged NRI husbands be arrested after the filing of FIRs.

A group women, who have allegedly been deserted by their NRI husbands and subjected to dowry harassment, have moved the apex court seeking reliefs including mandatory arrest of their estranged spouses and consular help in fighting cases in foreign land.