The Supreme Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on Monday that sought the establishment of a National Commission for Men and the formulation of guidelines to address the issue of suicides by married men due to domestic violence.
Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta, who presided over the bench, declined to consider the plea, stating that it presented a one-sided perspective.
The court asked the petitioner to provide data regarding the deaths of young girls soon after marriage.
The bench, while dismissing the PIL as withdrawn, verbally noted that existing criminal laws already address such grievances in cases of suicide and that people are not without recourse.
The petitioner, advocate Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, relied on data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to argue that a significant number of men take their own lives due to family problems and marriage-related issues.
According to Tiwari, “Around 33.2 percent of men ended their lives because of family problems and 4.8 percent due to marriage-related issues in the year 2021.
In this year, a total of 118,979 men committed suicide, accounting for approximately 72 percent, while 45,026 women committed suicide, accounting for approximately 27 percent.”
The plea sought a direction for the National Human Rights Commission to accept complaints from men experiencing domestic violence and to address the issue of suicide among married men.
It also requested the Law Commission of India to conduct research and prepare a report on the matter.
The plea further stated that every police station should accept complaints from victims of domestic violence and refer them to the state Human Rights Commission until a law is enacted by the Central government. (Edited)