US court lets ‘trapped’ woman travel back to India

A US court, citing a Delhi trial court order, has allowed a woman and her three-year-old son to travel back to India.

A US court, citing a Delhi trial court order, has allowed a woman and her three-year-old son to travel back to India.

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The US court observed that the woman's husband, a US citizen, had made an arrangement of reconciliation in India; but simultaneously filed a false case in a family court in US, and got a court order restraining her along with the child from travelling back home to Delhi.

Sunita (name changed) filed an application under the Domestic Violence Act in January 2010 against her husband, Sunny (name changed), in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Veena Rani.

On March 15, 2010, an original agreement of reunion was reached between the warring couple in the presence of two witnesses. When Sunita reached her matrimonial house in Rhode Island, US in May, she learnt that her husband had instituted legal proceedings against her in the US family court, and obtained an order on April 30, 2010, retraining her from leaving the country.

Sunita’s mother then filed an application in May, and told the court about her daughter's torture by her husband. The judge observed, “The mother seems to have been wickedly caged.”

The court directed the Indian embassy to provide legal assistance to Sunita and issued directions to the US court, stating that Sunny had defrauded courts in both countries.