I am 34 year old male living here in the United States. Me and wife got married 3 years ago but we are currently seperated for more than an year. She lives in India right now and has filed a divorce case in Bangalore and am contesting it from the past one year. Her outragaous allegations against me are all baseless; she has accused me of locking her up in the bathroom, not giving her food, physical abuse, trying to poison her, impotence etc. She also wants 50 lakh rupess as alimony. There were have been threats from her father of lodging DV/Dowry case agaist all my family members if I don't heed to their money demand. I am contesting my divorce via my lawyer. My lawyer says it may take a few more years for the court to adjudicate the case.
The 2 parties recently decided to settle the matter for 20 lakh rupees. Here are my options and need your opinion please.
1) Asking them to withdraw the current contested case and apply for a new mutual consent petition. Opposition party is ok with this route, they don't care as long as they get money. My lawyer also wants me to take this route, but I don't like it because I have very limited leave options and I can travel just once. Mutual divorce will require me to travel a 2nd time some 6 months later, but with no leave options left, I will be putting my job here in jeopardy if I travel a 2nd time.
2) Settle the case via medaition center, not needing to file any new petitions. I like this option since this is faster and will only require me to travel just once. But my lawyer DOES NOT like this option. He says the allegations are quite serious and takin the madiation center route will be like accepting their allegations. I have done a bit of research and have learnt that mediation settlement does not mean accepting her allegations. But my lawyer does not agree with me and says I must file a new mutual petition or else it will be like paying money plus buying their allegations. Do you agree with him?
Please let me know what your opinions are.
