PRV 27 April 2020

Marital issue

My sibling has been married for almost two years now. Before the wedding we enquired only about the basic ancestral background about the boy's parents in Kerala. The boy's side and we reside in Bangalore. So, under pressure from the boy's side to hurry up things, we somehow did not enquire much about the family in Bangalore. A couple of months after the wedding we'd come to know that he isn't holding a job as claimed by them and his dad even after retiring from public transport-Vigilance dept goes to a Pvt job. Keeping his dad's contacts in view he claims he has influence in the police dept. Now my sister is working for Railways. For the first year issues starting from the 4th day after the wedding, the insufficient gold, the salary, the transfer of salary to his account and constant taunting and harassment was metted out and physically abused, whenever she visited Bangalore, as job transfer was delayed. After transfer the issues became intense and he left her back at our (her parents') house. At the question of the returning of ornaments, we were manhandled and he gives multiple answers to different intermediaries. There was a counselling session, where the counsellor didn't seem to be addressing his issues directly and it was openly discussed that he had made sure the counselling was biased. We have no idea how to proceed regarding the relationship as we still hope things would turn positive. If not how to go about? As every thing they do seems like it is with legal advice. One of the answers we got regarding the ornaments is that he would return it at the time of settling. Kindly provide your valuable advice.

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2 Replies

Shashi Dhara 27 April 2020

When every thing comes to finalise in counselling then both parties liabilities will be cleared.

LIYANA SHAJI 27 April 2020

Good evening,

Since you mentioned that the husband does not hold a job as it was claimed by them-

Divorce under Section 12 of HMA can be filed on the grounds of fraud if the marriage had been consented on the basis of his assurance about the job.

Fraud means that the spouse had misrepresented issues so important that the other spouse would not have married him had she known the truth.

It was held in the case of Babui Panmate v. Ram Agya Singh that misrepresentation resulting in obtaining consent for marriage resulted to be fraud.

Since you mentioned that issues arose because of the insufficient gold, the salary, the transfer of salary to his account and constant taunting and harassment was metted out and she physically abused -

The husband can be punished under Section 498A of IPC which states that:

Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects a woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

Mental cruelty and physical cruelty are sufficient grounds for filing divorce.

In St of Assam v Md. Putul Ali, the court punished the accused as he had subjected his wife to physical and mental cruelty and In Pravin Mehta v Inderjeet Mehta, the court defined mental cruelty as the state of mind and a sufficient ground for divorce.

A petition under the Section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act can also be filed as the wife has undergone domestic violence.

The husband can also be punished under Section 3 and Section 4 of the Dowry prohibition Act, 1961 for taking dowry and demanding dowry respectively.

You also mentioned about the husband not returning the ornaments -

This issue can be settled after the divorce.