A wife found guilty of causing mental and physical torture to her husband cannot claim any maintenance

Men can take heart from a judgment delivered by a court which says that an educated wife, who is capable of making a living, cannot claim maintenance from her husband just because she happens to be a woman.

In a harshly worded judgment that could be a trend setter of sorts, the chief judicial magistrate of Dehradun, Subir Kumar, ruled that the case filed by the wife under the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Bill 2005 held no ground as she had insulted and assaulted her husband when he went to bring her back from her parents’ house.

“In this case it was the wife who was causing mental and physical torture to her husband and thus she could not claim any maintenance under Sections 18, 19, 20 and 20 of the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Bill 2005,” the order stated.

At the same time the order asked the husband to pay maintenance of Rs.2000 per month for their daughter which was part of his responsibility.

Arjun Singh and Jayshree were married in Dehradun on June 20, 2005. They went to her husband’s place in Uttarkashi on June 24 but the very next day she came back to her parents.

According to the wife she got pregnant in the first week but her husband persisted in having sex with her during pregnancy also which she resented. She also claimed that her husband did not want her to give birth to the child, as he was not sure that it would be a boy. She also told the court that she went back to her parents during pregnancy as there was no one to look after her and the to-be-born child at her husband’s place. She gave birth to a daughter, Shaileja, on March 27, 2006.

Jayshree also stated in her petition that her parents had spent Rs 10 lakhs on her marriage. Later her family paid another 5 lakhs in cash on the demand of Arjun Singh’s grandfather for the purchase of two plots. She claimed that her husband was making a huge amount of money and wanted him to give her and her two-year-old daughter the maintenance on grounds of desertion and cruelty.

In a judgment that came after nine months of hearing the CJM ruled that almost all the charges made by the wife were false.

Arjun Singh refuted all the charges of his wife and said that he always wanted to live with her but she went back to her parents after only a week of the marriage. He also told the court that he once went to her parents’ house along with his friend Sandeep Tomar to bring her back but instead of returning home she and his father-in-law abused and kicked them. He said that Jayshree actually beat him up with chappals.

He told the court that for some time his wife came to live with him but insisted that he should buy a house to live separately from his parents. He told her that he could not afford the luxury of a separate house. Instead he told her that as a surprise for her he has bought a plot of land. Contrary to what his wife had alleged, Arjun Singh insisted that he had taken loans from three banks to buy the plot. He showed the papers to the court to prove his innocence.

The CJM also took a very sharp view of the wife’s allegation that her husband did not want her to give birth to a girl child. She could not produce any evidence of a pre-natal test conducted on her to detect the sex of the unborn child. In fact, it was proved that Arjun Singh had actually distributed sweets in the hospital on the birth of his daughter.

“It is unfortunate that the birth of a girl is not looked upon as a very welcome development in middle class families in India. But this does not mean that you can make such unfounded charges against your husband just because he happens to be a man,” said the judgment.

The judge refused to allow any maintenance to the wife saying that Arjun Singh, a teacher, does not make the kind of astronomical amount of money as was claimed by her.

He dismissed her demand for maintenance ruling that the wife, who herself is a post graduate and was a teacher before marriage, was capable of earning as much as her husband does.




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