Man gets divorce and Rs 50,000 relief after being attacked by wife

Taking stringent note of a complete misuse of the law by a lady, the Bombay High Court granted a man divorce and also directed the lady to pay him Rs 50,000 as cost.

The man narrated his ordeal before a Division Bench of the High Court following which he was awarded divorce on the grounds of cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act. He told the court that the harassment suffered at the hands of his wife during their decade-old relationship had caused him duress and also tarnished the reputation of his family.

The couple got married in 2006 and were living at Nariman Point. A year after the marriage, the wife is alleged to have slapped her mother-in-law who was suffering from cancer. She also assaulted the husband.

A few months later she filed a case alleging dowry harassment, following which the husband and his father are detained by the police. The family got relief in the case. In the year 2009, husband files for a divorce and then the wife files criminal cases against her brother-in-law.

She alleged that her brother in law had sent goons to molest her. The case, however, fell flat when it was ascertained that the brother in law was in the sessions court applying for anticipatory bail in another case that she had lodged. The Bench held that there was no substance in the FIR and this complaint clearly amounts to cruelty.

The Bench struck down the order of the Family Court which had refused to grant a divorce and also asked the husband to pay maintenance of Rs 15,000. The High Court, however, upheld a portion of the Family Court's order which had directed the husband to pay monthly maintenance to the couple's son who lives with the wife. The Bench said that the trial court was wrong in examining each case independently rather than looking at the case in its totality.