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Matrimonials
The Delhi High Court has held that the domestic violence law doesn't distinguish first marriage from the second when it comes to paying maintenance to an estranged spouse. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on July 15 said once a man voluntarily marries his partner and accepts her and her children from the previous marriage, he cannot use it as a defence later to resist his statutory obligations. A man moved court against paying maintenance to his estranged wife saying it was his second marriage and the children were from her first marriage. "As regards the petitioner's (man) submission that the respondent's (wife) marriage with him was her second and that she had children from a previous marriage, such a submission is wholly misconceived," the order said. The order continued, "Domestic Violence Act does not distinguish between a first or subsequent marriage for the purpose of entitlement to maintenance. Once the petitioner voluntarily entered into the marriage and accepted the responden
A division bench of Calcutta High Court came down heavily on a trial court judge for ex parte dismissal of a suit for divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion sought by the appellant-husband. The bench comprising Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Justice Uday Kumar, in an order passed on May 22, observed that the trial court judge, by the impugned judgment, overlooked the fact that the wife (respondent) did not adduce any evidence of her own despite having filed a written statement and also did not cross-examine the husband. That apart, it transpires even on a cursory perusal of the impugned judgment that the learned judge proceeded entirely on a tangential perception of his own, without adverting at all to the materials on record. The trial court passed an ex parte decree in February 2018 against a matrimonial suit filed in 2015. The Calcutta High Court bench said that a decree of divorce on the grounds of cruelty is hereby granted to the husband against the wife. The be