Mumbai: A Mumbai sessions court has held that evidence related to adultery cannot be considered at the stage of granting maintenance to a former wife. The woman is entitled to maintenance until the allegations are proved, said the court, while setting aside the order of a Magistrate court, which denied maintenance to the wife under the Domestic Violence Act.
Additional sessions judge AZ Khan, in a recently released order, said, “The court based its opinion on nude (sic) photographs, WhatsApp messages, etc. despite these, the court said that adultery requires to be proved in the trial as per the provisions laid down under The Evidence Act and the above mentioned ‘proofs’ cannot be accepted as evidence while deciding the interim maintenance to the appellant/wife against the respondent No.1 (husband).”
The man earns ₹30 lakh a month from his business. The court has considered this in the submission of the wife and directed the man to pay monthly maintenance of ₹20,000 per month to her.
The sessions court was hearing the plea filed by the wife for maintenance. She claimed that her plea was wrongly rejected by the magistrate court. Hence, she approached the sessions court seeking maintenance.
The woman alleged that her husband used to harass her mentally and physically, and was suspicious of her character, for which he hired a private detective. The wife claimed that her husband had illicit relations with other women, for which he used to insult her regularly and eventually demanded a divorce.
The husband, on the other hand, opposed the contentions that the appellant herself inflected unbearable pain and anguish by creating an agonising situation for him and his family members. He claimed that the allegations of domestic violence are false and said that she was in an adulterous relationship with other men.
The court, however, said that apart from the allegation of adultery, the husband failed to prove that his wife was earning. “The husband has not filed any document to show that the wife has any source of income, but filing the divorce petition on the ground of adultery shows the harassment on his part, at least, at this stage,” read the court order.
