National Commission for Men: SC refuses to entertain PIL

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to support a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a National Commission for Men and for framing guidelines on the issue of suicides by married men under domestic violence.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta refused to consider the plea by saying, “You just want to portray a one-sided picture. Can you give us data on young girls dying soon after marriage?"

While dismissing the PIL, the bench orally observed that the existing criminal law takes care of such grievances in suicide cases and people were not without any remedy.

The petition, put forward by advocate Mahesh Kumar Tiwari relied on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data to claim that a large number of men ended their lives under family problems and marriage-related issues.

The plea stated, “Around 33.2 per cent of men ended their lives because of family problems and 4.8 per cent due to marriage-related issues in the year 2021. In this year, a total of 1,18,979 men committed suicide, which is about 72 per cent, and a total of 45,026 women committed suicide, which is about 27 per cent."

The plea also prayed that a direction be issued to the Law Commission of India to carry out research and prepare a report on the issue. Every police station should accept the complaint of victims of domestic violence and refer the same to the state Human Rights Commission till a law is enacted by the Central government, the plea further stated.

With inputs from IANS