Court upholds maintenance for mentally abused wife

Hearing the case of a restaurateur's wife, who had filed a case of mental harassment against her husband, one of her sons and his wife, the Sessions court has upheld a magistrate court order directing that monthly maintenance be paid to the woman after the court found substance in her complaint.

Dharmvati Gupta, 50, wife of restaurateur Devkinandan Gupta, 56, alleged that he assaulted her on several occasions, which forced her to lodge eight non-cognisable complaints against him with the Tardeo police station.

In 2016, an FIR was filed based on a complaint by her against three members of her family, alleging that they had ganged up against her and harassed her mentally and physically. After going through the complaint, the Girgaum Metropolitan Magistrate had in 2016 directed the accused to provide her a monthly maintenance of Rs 25,000. She had challenged the order claiming that the amount was too little, and pleaded the Sessions court to order the accused to raise the amount to Rs 1 lakh.

When the court asked the accused to file their reply, they claimed that the entire case was false and that fake allegations had been levelled against the three.

According to the Sessions court order issued on Friday, the accused's lawyer had alleged that the complainant was suffering from Schizophrenia and had a history of aggressive behaviour. She also suffered problems of thyroid, blood pressure and sugar. Stating that the accused was ready to stay with his wife, the lawyer prayed the court to dismiss the trial court's order of granting interim relief to her.

Advocate Nagi H H and advocate Chaula Solanki, appeared on behalf of Dharmavati. Nagi alleged, "Problems arose after 27 years of marriage when Dharmavati discovered that her husband was having an extra-marital affair. Devkinandan, his son Krashank and his daughter-in-law Vaishnavi, had ganged up against this lady and were harassing her. It is learnt that even the house helps were allegedly asked not to speak with her, thus alienating her in the house."

Rejecting the accused's plea, the court held, "As per the lady, she was physically and mentally harassed by three members of her own family. She pointed out that the incident happened in October 2012 and April 2013. It is on record that numerous complaints have been given by the lady against the accused with the Tardeo police station. A complaint was filed under Domestic Violence Act previously in 2013 which was dismissed. These pleadings and complaints to the police are prima facie sufficient to prove that there was domestic violence."

The court, however, rejected the lady's plea of raising the monthly maintenance, claiming that the lower court had considered minimum basic needs of a person while deciding the amount.