Punjab and Haryana HC orders builders to pay Rs 8 crore as maintenance | Chandigarh News

The Punjab and Haryana High Court last week upheld a 2018 family court order granting a builder a divorce and ordering him to pay Rs 80 million as permanent maintenance to his ex-wife. The woman had approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the family court order.

“A marriage which has become more bitter and acrimonious over the years does nothing but inflict cruelty on both the parties. Maintaining the façade of this broken marriage would be injustice to both the parties. A marriage which has broken down irretrievably, in our opinion, amounts to cruelty to both the parties as in such a relationship each party treats the other cruelly,” a bench of Justices Sudhir Singh and Harsh Bunger said in its May 24 verdict.

According to the case, the couple got married in 1995 in Haryana according to Hindu rites and ceremonies and subsequently had two children. According to the builder, from the beginning of the marriage, his wife was rude and argumentative towards him and his family. He claimed in the family court that she wanted to live separately and under her pressure, he took a loan and bought a house in Hisar where the wife still lives.

He further alleged that after her marriage, despite being a BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery) doctor and earning well, she did not spend any money on the education or upbringing of her children. He alleged that she insulted and humiliated his mother, threw her out of the house in Hisar and refused to have any physical intercourse with him for the last three years, causing him mental agony.

The woman, however, denied the allegations and said her husband had changed after his real estate business flourished. She accused him of mistreating her to get rid of her so he could remarry. She said she spent enough money on her children and never refused to have physical intercourse with her husband.

A family court in Hisar had heard the case and granted the construction contractor a divorce in 2018. The woman then approached the Supreme Court and requested that the divorce be dismissed.

In response to her complaint that the developer might use his influential position to take action against her or her family members, the High Court's Division Bench said the allegations were “baseless”.

The court also stated that “unproven/uncorroborated allegations by one spouse against the other of demanding dowry or of being physically assaulted are naturally a great torment to a person and amount to mental cruelty.”

The court found the woman's claim that she had never denied her husband a physical relationship “baseless and without merit,” pointing out that she herself believed that he had “abandoned her since July 2013.” “Secondly, the respondent had categorically claimed in his divorce petition that there was no sexual relationship between the complainant and the respondent after 2015. Thirdly, the respondent is of the view that the complainant did not allow him to enter the house,” the court said.

While upholding the divorce order of the Family Court, the Court said that it was appropriate to also consider award of permanent maintenance to the petitioner (the wife) under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The Court said that the wife did not dispute that the builder was regularly paying the maintenance amount of Rs.500,000 per month and the builder also did not dispute that he was financially well off as his company claimed to have a turnover of about Rs.2500 crore.

The court stated that it was reasonable to assume that the woman should be awarded a sufficient amount of permanent maintenance to enable her to maintain the same standard of living that she would have had she continued to live with her husband.

The court said it therefore considered it appropriate to award the woman an amount of Rs 8 crore as permanent maintenance along with the house in Hisar.

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First uploaded on: 28-05-2024 at 13:00 IST