Mumbai Court orders man to pay Rs 1 cr to wife for domestic violence

A sessions court in Mumbai ordered a man to pay his wife domestic violence compensation amounting to Rs 1 crore, enhancing it from the previous amount of Rs 5 lakh, noting that the husband was in the financial position to do so.

In the case, the wife appealed against a Magistrate court’s order which allotted her a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a monthly maintenance of Rs 1 lakh after the wife was subject to abuse and humiliation in a 20-year-long marriage, Live Law reported.

Noting that the husband and his family are extremely rich, reflected by their spending on properties and the elevator business they currently run, Additional sessions Judge Sameer Ansari said, “It is clear that the husband has not been able to prove the fact of his being in dire straits, financially. On the other hand, the material on the record reflects that he and his family are what in common parlance is called ‘crorepatis.'”

The court also added that the amount of Rs 5 lakh ordered by the Magistrate court was too ‘meagre’ considering the 20 years of torture, humiliation, taunts and economic abuse undergone by the wife.

The husband tried to dispute the previous order, saying that the wife did not remember the exact dates of when she was allegedly assaulted.

The court rejected the argument saying, “No wife can be expected to remember the exact dates and exact trivial reasons for her husband assaulting her over a long period of time….the mere fact of the complainant not being able to recall the reason for the trivial fights between her and her husband, as also the specific dates on which she had been physically assaulted cannot at all be said to be grounds sufficient to challenge her testimony regarding the same.”

When the husband tried to argue saying that the wife was a textile engineer and able to maintain herself and their daughter, the court responded, “Even otherwise, having the capacity to earn by itself, cannot result in the rejection of any claim of maintenance by a complainant who is subjected to domestic violence at the hands of her husband. The question of the complainant’s minor daughter being in a position to maintain herself also does not arise.”