Divorced NRI can’t shirk duty towards wife, child here: Court

Even if a man remarries after divorce, he cannot shirk his responsibility to maintain his first wife and child claiming that he has the added responsibility of his second wife, reports Urvi Mahajani.

Even if a man remarries after divorce, he cannot shirk his responsibility to maintain his first wife and child claiming that he has the added responsibility of his second wife.

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The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal filed by an NRI husband challenging the additional Rs 5,000 the Family Court had asked him to pay his wife for maintenance.

The court refused to believe the husband’s reasoning that he is unemployed in the UK and also that he has a second wife and her two children to look after.

“It is not possible for us to believe that a person who is having no income in the UK, will maintain his wife (in the UK), who is a divorcee having two children,” said the court

The court observed that the former wife in India is also entitled to live with reasonable comforts. The court upheld the order passed by the Family Court, which had increased the maintenance for wife and a minor son from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.