How to come out of this impasse?

Querist : Anonymous (Querist) 14 February 2011 This query is : Resolved
Ashwin (name changed for confidentiality), a relative of mine, got married in the year 2001. At the time of his marriage Ashwin was working in a private company at Mumbai. He and his wife Rajni (name changed) led a happy life for about four years. Every thing was going well between them during this period. Ashwin’s actions amply prove that. For instance, Ashwin took out a few insurance policies on his life and nominated his wife as the beneficiary. Similarly, in all his other investments, Rajni was the only beneficiary.

While aspiring for advancement in his career Ashwin switched a few jobs and was generally doing well. For about a year and a half he was based in his wife’s home city Allahabad where he was working for a contracting firm. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out very well and he couldn’t successfully continue to work for this firm. Ashwin then tried his luck in business and started his own small shop in his home city Kanpur. The business was small and the income was low. Though Ashwin’s parents adequately supported the couple, Rajni started feeling financial constraints. In order to provide Ashwin with more flexibility and time Rajni decided to leave him alone for a couple of months and went back to her parents’ home in March 2004. She kept in touch with Ashwin via telephones from there and continued to motivate him for trying harder.

Not satisfied with the income he was able to generate from his small business at Kanpur, Ashwin took a new job in Mumbai in August 2004 and shifted base. He did very well in this job. His career has progressed exceedingly well since and he is now working for Reliance at a reasonably good salary in Delhi. Despite his excellent career growth and significantly better financial position, his wife wasn’t impressed and decided not to return to him at all. For last about seven years, Ashwin and his family have made numerous efforts to bring her back but have not been successful. The only reason she gives is that Ashwin’s family did not adequately apprise her and her father of Ashwin’s salary and his financial status before arranging this marriage. Had they known that, this marriage would not been possible. More than six years have now passed and the couple haven’t cohabited even for a day.

Though Rajni is not willing to return to her husband at all, she is averse to the idea of legal separation too. It is understood that she is practising law in Allahabad High Courts. Ashwin is terribly shaken. He is unable to understand his wife’s motives behind all this.

How to break this impasse? Ashwin has almost reconciled to the fact that he may have to lead a lonely life. In regards to filing a case for divorce, some lawyers have advised him that if he goes ahead with this he may lead himself to a worse situation. This mainly assumes that if a divorce case is filed, there may be a retaliatory case from Rajni in which there may be an attempt to implicate him and his family in some forged dowry or harassment charges.

What will be the best course of action for Ashwin to pursue further? Is it mandatory to file an RCR suit before filing a divorce appeal? Whilst the chances of rapprochement appear to be very bleak now, it will not be very difficult to prove their physical separation for more than six years.

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