Ahmedabad Others
“SM sees no basis for rejecting the maintenance application”
The family court had rejected the wife's claim for maintenance due to elaborate photos from her social media accounts
Illustration: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Nikunj Soni
April 10, 2024, 6:00 am | UPDATED: April 10, 2024, 3:03 am | 8 min reading
Justice JC Doshi of the Gujarat High Court has termed as “strange and absurd” an order of the Family Court rejecting a woman's application for maintenance from her estranged husband on the ground that she was living a luxurious life, based on by Her husband created photos from social media accounts.
The HC admitted the matter for hearing and issued notices to the affected respondents.
According to the details of the case, the woman had approached the family court and demanded a monthly maintenance of Rs 25,000 from her husband. However, the husband claimed that the woman was friends with another man and had a good income.
He produced photos taken from the woman's social media account that showed her living a luxurious life. He produced photos of the woman purchasing an expensive PC tablet, getting off a plane at a domestic airport, standing with a trolley at an international airport and attending a luxury shopping center.
Based on the photos, the family court judge concluded that she lived a luxurious life and was not required to provide monthly maintenance from her husband.
The woman challenged the order in the Gujarat High Court through her lawyer Anvesh Vyas, claiming that the family court had ignored the provisions of the Evidence Act and could not draw a conclusion based on the photographs. To support his claims, the husband must prove his income. Therefore, the order should be repealed and maintenance should be granted to the wife.
After hearing the plea, Justice JC Doshi remarked, “The learned Family Court judge believed that the plaintiff is leading a high life. At first glance, these findings appear to be completely absurd and a departure from the principles of the Evidence Act. Therefore, the present application for a review of the sentence deserves consideration.”
The couple had a love marriage. But later their relationships allegedly escalated due to harassment, dowry demands and her husband's relationships with other women.
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