• Lack of knowledge about marital life and legal provisions cause of increasing divorce cases

LAMJUNG: Majority of divorcee women in Lamjung district have failed to acquire their ex-spouse's property owing to lack of knowledge about legal provisions as divorce cases are on the rise every year. According to District Court, Lamjung, 92 couples have already divorced in four and a half months until December 1, in current fiscal year 2019/20. Of the total divorce cases, five couples acquired property share while women in rest of the cases did not acquire their ex-partner's property share. According to Lamjung District Judge Harishchandra Dhungana, the divorce cases are rising in Lamjung as in other districts. He said the majority of divorcee women are aged between 20 to 35 years. Fiscal year Divorce cases No. of divorcee women failed to acquire property rights 2015/16 95 73 2016/17 93 71 2017/18 135 116 2018/19 202 191 2019/20 (until December 1) 92 87 Statistics of the Court show that 73 divorcee women out of 95 cases did not acquire their ex-husband's property share in fiscal year 2015/16, 71 divorcee women out of 93 did not acquire the property right in fiscal year 2016/17. Likewise, 116 divorcees out of 135 cases did not acquire the property right in fiscal year 2017/18 while in fiscal year 2018/19, 191 divorcee women out of 202 cases could not acquire their husband's property share. District Bar Association, Lamjung President Krishna Prasad Adhikari said the divorce cases were on the rise since majority of couples seeking for divorce within one or few years of their marriage were younger and did not have the knowledge about marital life and legal provisions. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rabindraman Gurung attributed the rising divorce cases to marriage in younger age, inter-caste marriage, partner's age difference, husband's migration in foreign employment and polygamy among other factors. The couples facing minor problems in their family and reaching out to police were provided compromise solution while others seeking for divorce were referred to the court, DSP Gurung said.