SURKHET, Oct 24: A year ago, Prem Rokaya of Chingad Rural Municipality of Surkhet submitted an application at the ward office demanding divorce from his wife. The case was forwarded to the judicial committee later. After repeated discussions at the ward office and judicial committee, the issue was settled temporarily through reconciliation.

However, Prem was not happy with the decision of the committee. He then filed for divorce at the district court after the new civil codes came into effect from August 17. "Earlier, only those cases which could not be solved by the judicial committee used to be forwarded to the court but the new civil codes allows men to file for divorce directly at the court," said Bhupal Bhandari, registrar of the district court, adding, "The number of people filing for divorce has increased significantly since August." 

Altogether 59 cases of divorce have been registered at the district court in between August 17 to October 9. Surprisingly, males have filed 27 cases. Last year, only 13 cases of divorce were registered during this period and all of them were registered by females. Divorce cases are expected to rise if the current trend continues.

"There was a time when only women used to come to courts demanding divorce after being subjected to various kinds of domestic violence and torture," said Registrar Bhandari, adding, "But now, even the victimized males have started speaking up." 

During last fiscal year, 317 divorce cases took place in Surkhet when the total numbers of such cases in the province were 401. Early marriage, illiteracy, unemployment, foreign employment, extra marital affairs among others are the reason behind increasing cases of divorce.

Similarly, in Jumla, 14 divorce cases have been registered since the introduction of the new civil codes. Stating that their wives have victimized them, three husbands have filed for divorce. Bude Budha, 40 of Kharpunath Rural Municipality-1 had filed for divorce at the judicial committee. He waited for a year but the committee delivered no verdict on the case. Later, he went to the court, making it the first divorce case filed in the district since the new civil codes came into effect.

Likewise, District Court, Mugu, has registered four divorce cases so far. Women have filed all these cases.

 
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