Supreme Court: The bench of Surya Kant and Dipankar Dutta, JJ has refused to hear the plea seeking setting up of a National Commission for Men, similar to the National Commission for Women, to address issues of domestic violence suffered by married men.
Advocate Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, through his Public Interest Litigation, sought guidelines mandating police stations to accept complaints lodged by men relating to domestic violence, suicide by married men, family problems, or marriage-related issues and refer them to the State Human Rights Commission. He also cited a report by the National Crime Records Bureau stating that of the 1,64,033 people who committed suicide across the country in 2021, 81,063 were married men and 28,680 were married women. Further, in 2021, around 33.2% men ended their lives because of family problems and 4.8% due to marriage-related issues. In this year total of 1,18,979 men have committed suicides which is about (72%) and total 45,026 women have committed suicides which are about 27%1.
However, he withdrew his PIL after the Supreme Court showed no interest in entertaining the plea. The order of the Court reads as follows:
“After arguing the case for some time, learned Senior counsel for the petitioner seeks to withdraw the Writ Petition with liberty to pursue the representation stated to have been made to the competent authority.”
With inputs from Press
[Mahesh Kumar Tiwari v. Union of India, WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) Diary No. 10740/2023, order dated 03.07.2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Senior Advocate Ajit Kumar Sinha and Petitioner-in-person.
1. SC to hear on July 3, plea for setting up National Commission for Men to protect married men, The Statesman, dated 30-06-2023