The local level judicial committees in the eastern district of Ilam have had to adjudicate an increasing number of cases revolving around marital disputes arising from the reported abuse of social media, or the alleged misuse of money sent by a spouse working abroad. These committees, headed by municipal deputy mayors or ward deputy chairpersons, were formed to resolve disputes locally in line with a constitutional provision. The committees have the authority to arbitrate civil as well as criminal cases whose sentence can last up to a year.
Ilam’s Mai municipality, which borders the district of Jhapa, gets over 50 cases in a month. Bishnu Maya Rijal, coordinator of the judicial committee and deputy mayor, says many of those cases have to do with marital problems, and that while the committee is able to resolve some cases, others are more complicated. One such reported case involved a wife who asked for an expensive mobile phone from her husband working abroad and used the device to establish relations with another man.
Rijal argues that families whose members work abroad are being broken apart because of social media abuse. Facebook seems to be a major culprit. Women (but also men in some cases) are apparently using it to begin extra-marital affairs. They splurge the hard-earned money sent by their spouse working abroad, the filed cases accuse.
Similar cases are being filed in other areas too. Pabimaya Rai, deputy mayor and head of the Judicial Committee at Deumai municipality, says that there has been a drastic increase in the number of ‘Facebook disputes’. “There are many cases of a woman indulging in profligacy or licentiousness while her husband is abroad,” says Rai.
No law yet
The standard procedure for adjudicating cases hasn’t yet been formed at Ilam’s local level. But Shumsher Rai, chairperson of Rong rural municipality, says that despite the lack of laws, local disputes are resolved through mediation.
In the absence of the required laws and guidelines, some local level judicial committees have adopted the dispute resolution mechanism of various NGOs. The government has recently sent a preliminary draft of the law to the local level. All local level judicial committees say they are studying the draft.
By TOYANATH BHATTARAI | ILAM
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