MOOT PROPOSITION

INTRA- UNIVERSITY MOOT COURT COMPETITION 2017

TAMIL NADU NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL, TIRUCHIRAPPALLI

1. Steffi Johnson, a Christian by birth and an intelligent and vibrant girl, graduated from
a prestigious National Law School in India in the year 2008 and joined Mylegal
Consultants, a reputed law firm located in Mumbai. Ishaan Rajput, a Hindu by birth,
also a pass out of the same law school works as a tax lawyer with a reputed tax firm
based in Mumbai. Both of them were college sweethearts and decided to get married in
the year 2010 against the wishes of Steffis parents and registered their marriage under
the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
2. After the marriage, Steffi moved into Ishaans home in Andheri, who lived there with
his mother, a housewife and father, a retired army personnel who currently runs a
charitable old age home. Steffi despite her busy schedule, occasionally used to help her
father in law in running the old age home and taking care of the inmates.
3. Both of them were happily leading their married life and work life and they decided to
have a baby in 2012. After few unsuccessful attempts of conceiving a child, they
resorted to IVF technique. In pursuance to that, Steffi decided to quit her well paid job
and focus on the treatment. Subsequently, in the year 2015 Steffi and Ishaan had a pair
of twins. During this time Steffis mother in law had a cardiac arrest and eventually
paralysed her body and was bed-ridden.
4. While Steffi had a tough time looking after her babies and bed-ridden mother in law,
she continued to face resentment from her parents who did not want to lend her a
helping hand, despite her repeated request. Her situation was worsened owing to her
continued assistance rendered to her father in law in the old age home. Furthermore,
she could not gather any support or help from Ishaan, who being a tax lawyer was
extremely pre-occupied with GST work and often came home late or stayed out of town.
Worse still, she had gone low on finances as all her savings were spent on the IVF
treatment. To better her position, she started going to a nearby school as a French tutor
occasionally and got a meagre amount in return.
5. Steffi at this stage of life felt an identity crisis, overburdened with daily chores,
responsibilities of being a mother of two, acting as a nurse to her mother in law and
 assistant to her father in law, without any recognition or assistance, financial or
otherwise.
6. One fine morning Steffi came across an article in the newspaper that talked about the
Indian Parliament passing an Act titled Compulsory payment of Honorarium to
Housewives Act (CHH). Upon further research she found out that the mentioned Act
has been recently passed by the Indian Parliament in the year 2017 (date of
commencement of the Act being 23.02.2017) with an objective of .an Act to provide
for a compulsory honorarium payable to housewives in recognition of their work and
for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
7. Upon perusing through the said law, her attention was drawn to the below mentioned
provisions of the Act.

.
2. Scope & Applicability- (1) This Act applies to housewives who have
contracted a marriage under various personal laws or secular laws existing and
have registered their marriage compulsorily under the relevant laws in force in
India.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law in force, this Act shall only
apply to housewives who have no regular source of income.
3. Definitions- For purposes of this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
(a) Honorarium means and includes any maintenance paid to a Housewife
under this Act.
(b) Housewife means any married woman who is in a legally subsisting
marriage as recognised and registered under any personal or secular laws in
force in India but does not include any married woman, whether separated or
not, who has ever availed any right to maintenance under any other law in force
in India.
(c) Income means income under Income Tax Act, 1961.

4. Payment of Honorarium- Every house wife as defined under the Act is

entitled to claim a fixed honorarium from the husband on a monthly basis
depending upon the income and status of her husband.
 5. Powers of State Government - The State Government shall within a period
of three months from the date of commencement of this Act take all measures
to ensure that-
(i) an appropriate enforcement agency is constituted in every district for purpose
of deciding upon the quantum of honorarium as under Section 4 of this Act;
(ii) necessary directions are framed for timely payment of honorarium to the
beneficiaries under a disbursement scheme.

8. Steffi decided to avail the rights guaranteed to her under the Act. On 31.07.2017, she
approached the Supreme Court seeking directions from the Court to provide for
establishment of an enforcement authority for effective implementation of the Act. She
also pleads the need for a penalty clause in case of a default under the Act, in absence
of which the provisions would not be effectively implemented. Additionally, she also
sought direction from the Supreme Court directing her husband to pay her the
honorarium that she is entitled to under the Act.
9. Being the first of its kind in India, Steffis petition before the Apex Court gained
widespread popularity and was publicised by media. Disturbed by the petition filed by
Steffi in the Court and the increasing public response in favour of Steffi, Ishaan
approaches Save Indian Family Foundation for help. Save Indian Family Foundation
(SIFF) is a voluntary non-Governmental association of married men that aims at ending
discrimination of men and male disposability. SIFF files a petition before the Apex
Court challenging the constitutionality of the Act and its applicability to Steffi.
10. The Apex Court has decided to hear both the matters together and hearing is up before
a Division Bench of the Court on 19.08.2017.