Bombay high court dissolves marriage of couple who fought legal battle for 10 years

The Bombay high court held that the woman and her family harassed the husband and his family continuously, making their lives miserable

The Bombay high court dissolved the marriage of a couple who lived together for three months, but fought a legal battle for more than a decade.

The court said the woman acted “deliberately to bring disrepute to the husband and his family and to disgrace her father-in-law, a retired army officer”. (HT File)

A division bench of justices RM Savant and Sandeep Shinde confirmed a June 2009 order of the Pune family court order, which dissolved the marriage on the grounds that the woman and her family harassed the husband and his family continuously, making their lives miserable.

The couple got married on April 20, 2006 and started living together at their Pune home. On June 5, the woman left for her parents’ house in Agra and returned on September 2. She lived with her husband for a fortnight and then went back to her parents.

She returned to the Pune house in January 2007 by breaking the lock. She left for parent’s house 20 days later.

A year later, her husband approached the family court seeking a divorce. He said his wife fought with him and his parents, lodged false complaints against them and made their life miserable. The woman, however, said her husband and his family made unlawful demands and harassed her as she could not fulfil them.

The high court noted that soon after the man approached the family court, his wife’s father asked the Agra police to file a case against him, his parents and younger brothers,

The wife’s father secured warrants for the arrest of all “accused” and brought the Agra police to Pune in a private jeep. The police arrested the husband’s father and the brothers, taking them to Agra. They could not arrest the husband as he was not in Pune at the time. His mother was also spared for lack of a woman police constable.