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lonely_man (Research)     03 October 2016

Alcoholism after separation?

Hi everyone. Need a few clarifications regarding S.498A IPC and 13(i)(a) HMA.

I'm a 30 year old male, practicing lawyer myself but almost exclusively into commercial litigation; never ever touched a single matrimonial case in my life. Little did I know that the first matrimonial case of my life would be my own sad

What I want to know is, what is the procedure in a Complaint filed by my wife under S.498A before the ACMM? If cognizance is taken by the Magistrate, would I be summoned and made to give a Statement before the Court or would I get an opportunity to file a written submission? I want to place a Written Submission on record because my wife has made tons of false averments in HMA Suit and in furture, I particularly intend to pursue Perjury and Contempt against her (if I remain outside bars!).

Secondly, after my Wife left matrimonial home for her paternal home after merely months of our marriage, I resorted to very heavy alcohol drinking out of a sense of depression and a (faulty) coping mechanism. I developed Alcoholic Hepatitis and was admitted to hospital for about 15 days, during which I recovered fully, as per the diagnostic Reports. I used to drink before marriage also, but in moderation, and I had told this to my Wife before marriage. Further, the Ground raised for Divorce by my Wife is Mental Cruelty arising out of Dowry demand and no mention has been made at all about any drinking issues. My query is, what kind of effect can I expect from Court if I file my hospital admission and discharge Report which mentions that I'm a chronic alcoholic, but also mentions that I was perfectly normal at the time of discharge? I've completely abstained from drinking now. It is very important for me to file this Report because of the dates I spent admitted in Hospital, but, how far is there a possibility of the language "Alcoholic Hepatitis" and "Chronic Alcoholism" prejudice the Court against me and/or consider me as a alcoholic? Any case law on alcoholism which happened after my Wife left me and, never during her presence? 

In that sense, Karnataka High Court judgment in Sri Krishna Kumar vs. Smt Pavitra Gowda (Misc. First Appeal No. 323/2010 decided on 18.06.2015) appears relevant but not exactly on the point of post-separation alcoholism, which in any event did not cause any cruelty to the Wife who is not even aware of it as on date.

Please guide. Thanks.



Learning

 14 Replies


(Guest)
Fir. Chargesheet. Admittance of offence? Punishment award. Case closed. Nonadmittance of offence? Trial. Judgement. U being lawyer won't have problem attending the case for next decade as ur in court hall daily. But I advice u to go for MCD. File counter 498a on wife n co. She surely will come to settlement. Ur drunkard story is of no consequence to any of the cases.

whatnot   03 October 2016

498A is filed for the duration of your marital stay.

What happened after the split in your life is entirely your own life and you don't have to talk about it. Why bring 'mari' in to dispute?

If you need to submit a medical proof as a reason for your absense, please do so.. Just a typical certificate that you were in hospital which needed in patient. Period. No mention of reason of hospitalisation.

Corporate or Marital. Law is same. Need to know basis.

You disclose what is required by law... Unless more disclosure helps your case..

 

lonely_man (Research)     03 October 2016

Thanks for the responses guys. I've done quite a lot of research for precedents and found some good cases, but this one related to post-separation actions is bothering me, with hardly any precedent that I can find. On the contrary, a 2015 Supreme Court judgment discussed that post-separation conduct of parties may have a bearing on the case. frown

@ Gyan Prakash & whatnot: I have to file a proof of hospitalization because my ingenious wife made a Complaint to police against me, alleging certain criminal acts by me, on which date I was in fact hospitalized and bedridden, which of course, my loving wife had no idea about! So far as detailed Hospital Report is concerned, I felt that the Court may indeed be well within its powers to query the reason for hospitalization from me and not disclosing the same might be as prejudicial as disclosing an alcoholic hepatitis diagnosis Report. indecision. Also, I'm a lawyer in a different State than where the lady's parental home, and the Court are, so that's a bother and I shall need to engage a local Counsel. So far as mutual consent is concerned, I suggested it to her way back in December last year over phone to end it peacefully without dramas and mud-slinging but she outrightly rejected the same, bursting with spite and vengeance.

 

@ autohide4u: I did not miss any Court day, in a manner of speaking. I'm following the Case dates from the Court website (Orders are not being shown). So far as 498A is concerned, it has been listed 5 times already and again listed in January, showing the purpose for all hearings as being "Evidence". (I don't know anything about Criminal Law, but I guess it is Pre-Summoning Evidence?). So far as the Divorce Suit is concerned, the Postman simply threw a Registered Post envelope containing Summons on the Ground Floor of my Apartment, i.e. not hand dellivered to me or receiving acknowledged by me. I noticed it lying on the ground by chance. It just had a date of hearing and, not even the name of the Judge concerned!. There was no Plaint with the Summons (I got a copy of the Plaint through a local lawyer), and, for all practical purposes, I'm going to insist on non-service of Summons.


(Guest)
I really doubt ur an advocate. Or a lawyer. Your contention ie date theory has got nothing to do with cases filed on u. Refer 498a IPC in detail. Hire a able counsel who.handles matrimonial cases n first file counter 498a before u do anything. I hope u at least know what is counter 498a.

lonely_man (Research)     04 October 2016

Originally posted by : Gyan Prakash

I really doubt ur an advocate. Or a lawyer. Your contention ie date theory has got nothing to do with cases filed on u. Refer 498a IPC in detail. Hire a able counsel who.handles matrimonial cases n first file counter 498a before u do anything. I hope u at least know what is counter 498a.

 

Very quick to judge others qualifications, eh Mr. Prakash? In any event, I've neither the need nor the intent to prove anything to rude mouths.

 

Now, as your eminent self would be aware of, to constitue an offence under S.498A, subjecting a woman to cruelty is a sine qua non. That may be done by an overt act or an omission. I'm sure you'll realize that an act or omission must happen on a given date. And, if the accused is bedridden on that date, it is well nigh impossible for him to commit such act or omission, as alleged.

 

Satisfied?

 

whatnot   04 October 2016

This forum has been a very resourceful.

Pity if it turns into spite and question motive behind every query.

We don't have to look at the world from constrained prism of ours.

As much as evil exists, we do have to be objective.

 

To the quesrist:

Out guessing what court contends as justifible reason is futile.

As said before you may submit medical certificate and documents prove that you were hospitalised. The cause for hospitalisation is and should be confidential. It is voilation of personal field. Unless it is important for fulcrum of justice. It is not so. If you had an aliment after marital split.. you can keep the cause confidential.Period.

Medical certificate should suffice.

Fight the case on merits. Have you really been mean to her?. If so tread carefully. If not, fight for justice

1 Like

lonely_man (Research)     04 October 2016

@whatnot: Spite and questioning of motive ... let me get this out of the way at the outset. I'm a lawyer who has always worked in the High Court in the field of Writ jurisdiction, Arbitration and Contracts. You may go so far as to say that I don't know an iota of matrimonial law...nor did I ever had the intention to, but for this mess I find myself in. But, I feel questioning and/or doubting me as to my profession and/or qualification in such a manner was both irrelevant and uncalled for.

 

Coming to the query in point. You are quite right when when you put it that guessing the Court's reaction may be quite futile, being such a subjective issue. I only wanted a feel of Judges' perceptions on such things from experts practising on matrimonial side, for a rough guess to strategise my defence and counter accordingly.

 

Mean to her! No Sir, neither me, nor my co-accused parents! In fact, I'm completely baffled and in a kind of shock as to what went wrong.

 

If you can believe me, we did not take a penny of dowry from her. Her father gave me one lakh rupees as shagun and I deposited that entire amount, as well as cash gifts received from the Wedding and Reception Guests, in a Bank Account that I opened in her Sole name. Before marriage, we appeared quite compatible in the long daily chats I had with her on phone for nealy 5 months. I suspended my practice for a while to spend time with her. I completely blocked out my ex-GF from my life. She was never asked to do any household work at all. We had a honeymoon planned but had to postpone it for some reasons.

 

And yet, she left me after only 2 months of marriage! And now S.498A and Dowry Prohibition Act and HMA. Oh women!!!

whatnot   04 October 2016

@ ATS,

First paragraph was not directed at you.

It was general observation.

 

My close friend wife walked out on him on the night of marriage. Now all his youth has gone fighting cases. Yes. women wrath has no bound.

All the best . Things was improved a little. You can fight for your honour.

Fight well.

whatnot   04 October 2016

An afterthought.

In you reply, list all 2 months in a chornological order..

List what you both did in those days..

Dig into credit card details and see if you have any spending on movie, shopping, gifts, olo taxi, going to her relative place, meeting her friend, spend a night hotel...Sending your parents away for temple visit...so you both could spend time privately...All pooja recipts...Get some poojari to attest...blal..blahhh...

List all of them..And list the day she walked out specifically..

 

Ask the court when did voilence happended?....

 

Let her refute...Each day...Work like charm if you have spending trails..

Or get some bills...Just give a picture of happy man with his wife and wife goes for a walk and never returns...Husband waiting...

 

Onus of proving voilence rests with them... Let them do it..

lonely_man (Research)     04 October 2016

@ whatnot: Thanks a lot for the inputs. I realized your initial comment was not directed at me, yet I felt a duty to explain. Be that as it may.

 

Yes, I'm collecting as much documentary evidence as I can. I've got flight tickets in our names from her parental State to our matrimonial State, flights tickets to and from Kathmandu (had to be cancelled at last minute, though, for reasons beyond our control), photographs of me and her with my sister and sister's family, our photographs with my friend's family at friend's home (by the way, this, my 'best friend' betrayed me at the last minute and refused to testify for me), photographs of me with her at a historical site, cash memo of jewelry purchased for her by my parents and my brother two months before marriage, cash memo of gifts made by me to her, my hospitalization records, copies of police complaint made by me against her brother who came to my house and created ruckus, my Income Tax Returns for the last six years; her Bank Account Statement opened in matrimonial State; investment made in her Sole name in matrimonial State.

 

And, please do forgive me for trying to keep the exact details rather vague (like places, dates etc.) because she knows I used to lurk in this Forum earlier and there is a very low, but possible, chance of her tracking me down here (in fact, in hindsight, I changed my nick here as well...no, I'm not being paranoid :)

 

The thing that bothers me the most is the prejudice: If Court considers me an Alcoholic; the Court is in her native State and I'm virtually an outsider; why she separated so quickly; she looks quite younger than her age and it rather creates an impression of me having destroyed an innocent girl's life; and, of course, women are always right.

lonely_man (Research)     04 October 2016

Sorry, repeat Post deleted.

lonely_man (Research)     04 October 2016

Sorry, repeat Post deleted.

whatnot   04 October 2016

Only weapon left untested in this case would be, potency.

 

There is high chance they will go this way.

 

Better be off the liquid diet and built up some stamina... You're in for a long haul..

 

Money would find path to peace when they come for negotiaition

lonely_man (Research)     04 October 2016

How do Courts test Potency?

cheeky


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