MEA portal to track missing husbands

New Delhi: The ministry of external affairs (MEA) is developing a portal where summons and warrants against absconding NRI husbands would be served, and if the accused does not respond he would be declared a proclaimed offender and his property would be attached, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Friday.

She said for coming up with such a portal, there needs to be amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) that would allow the district magistrate to accept such summons and warrants put on the portal to be “deemed as served”.

The external affairs minister said the law ministry, legislative Assembly, home ministry and the women and child development ministry have agreed on the proposal, according to news agency PTI.

According to the MEA, 3,328 complaints have been received during the last three years (January 2015 to November, 2017) from distressed Indian women deserted by their NRI spouses. The MEA is developing a portal, where summons and warrants against absconding NRI husbands would be served, and if the accused does not respond he would be declared a proclaimed offender and his property would be “attached,” Ms Swaraj said.

Attachment is a legal process by which at the request of a creditor, designates specific property owned by the debtor to be transferred to the creditor, or sold for the benefit of the creditor. The creditor in this case would be the victim.

“We are trying if the amendments could be introduced in the Cabinet and we would try to get it passed in the next Parliament session,” Ms Swaraj was quoted as saying said at a conference on NRI Marriages and Trafficking of Women and Children.