Secondly, in the case of a love marriage, both the partners are equally responsible and it does not seem fair that only the man should be paying the price.

Surprisingly, alimony is often a motivational force for women to file for divorce and stop trying to save a marriage. In a shaky marriage, parents of girls often encourage their daughters to move towards divorce in lieu of a hefty alimony.

Finally, the burden of alimony acts as a deterrent for married men in India contemplating divorce thus causing higher stress levels and higher suicide rates among Indian married men.

Alimony was encouraged in the name of women empowerment. There are six laws achieving the objectives of women protection and women empowerment working in tandem. These together with the Hindu Marriage Act seem to have increased the rate of divorce in the country. The Hindu Marriage Act has provisions for saving as well breaking marriages. Unfortunately, Section 9 – Restitution of Conjugal Rights is non-executable, which means the court cannot enforce an order passed in this section.

The Hindu Marriage Act is used more frequently for getting a divorce than patching a tottering marriage. This inspired the recent statement by the Supreme Court Judge Arijit Pasayath that the Hindu Marriage Act has broken more families than joining them.

Small wonder that divorces are increasing and the institution of marriage is slowly dying out. It is about time we woke up to the fact that every bad marriage has not one but two victims and it is unfair for only one of them to pay for it.