Wife has to prove cruelty to get maintenance: Bombay HC

A woman has to prove cruelty, neglect or abandonment to claim maintenance from her estranged husband,

----     no doubt about it

Nothing new.Agreed with arupji view.

When a wife is kept captive in the house by her inlaws and husband,when she has no access to e-mail,telephone recording etc,how will she collect proofs?

When she is suddenly beaten or slapped,will she be ready with  a tape recoder or a video camera?

And,is it necessary that she will get injury marks?If she does not,will slapping or kicking her not be cruelty then?

When a woman is suddenly given oral abuses,will she be ready with the above equipments for recording?

Likewise there can be countless egs.,where she will not have the opportunity to collect proofs..

But...........................

Now opportunistic husband s and their parents will devise such ways yto harass a wife,that she suffers and is not able to prove also.

Great going Indian judiciary..

Good and very relevant questions by Meenal. 

The wife should approach SC, 

Meenal is right...domestic violence does not have in most of the cases documentaty proofs, hence to strictly ask for the documentary proofs of abondonment will not be fair. A woman may remain in the same househol and yet abused, neglected and deserted. The behaviour of the spouse in all verbal and non verbal form can convey that she is no longer anyone in his life. 

Looking at the lady's age, and with age health status, the length of marriage and the years that she has lived in her husband's home, it looks like an unfiar deal to the wife. Why the earlier case filed by the husband was dismissed? On what grounds? 

Wife was given a wrong advise ........  she could have asked for maint under crpc125 and hama or dv.

Question here is .........

As per 498a ............... If there is a trace of smoke 498a inadvertantly assumes that its the husband who lit the fire!!! But it could be by wife also!!

Dowry givers should be punished first!!

Its the Saint who is the real culprit ........ the Saint who keeps the devil alive even though he had a chance to eliminate the devil himself !!!

Why? ........................... Once the devil is dead then Saint goes jobless!!

To whom would he preach his sainthood and divinity ................ if the fear of devil is eliminated?

Who had stopped the female and her parents to eliminate the devil of dowry by refusing to budge right in the first time and make the right choice for the female?

@ Writers

I agree to the Order of Mumbai HC and disagree to Meenal and Ambika on sole grounds that in 498a police comes at morning time and arrests husband and family members on sole verbal and or a written complaint of a gospel truth vomiting wife and does she produce any of your asked proofs to police? Think aloud and you female writers here are struck only upto maintenance point of a wife and in marriage let us go beyond maintenance point.


One of you female writers above say that this wife should go to SC? What for at 66 yrs age ? Even SC says cruelties as well as desertion needs to be proved to get maintenance. So there is NO FREE LUNCH BTW in case you female writers have forgotten.


Show me one case where any one wife has brought on record any of the “proofs” as asked by one of you female writer above. In 90% cases of gender biased laws it is a husband who has to bring on record ‘proofs’ of his innocence.

By default all wifes (WOMEN) are innocent and here is recent eg. of your tribe

https://www.firstpost.com/politics/the-kanimozhi-defence-im-just-a-girl-5978.html

Ever heard a husband (MAN) taking such defence in media and or court J He will be kicked out which is illustrative enough by your forthcoming comments now !

Happy reading my bytes ……

Oops...............
(opening thread post kisney post kiya yeh toh mainey dekha hi nahi tha Maulawi sahib reply karney se pahley mai to grounds / facts pe jata hun! )

DV karva ke hi manoge tum bhi na
Reasoning: Write something right here people say "verbal abuse thy name DV complain to Admin" hai na J

Nobody says that proofs are unimportant.Only that many a times,it's not possible to prove many cruelties,for eg mental cruelties,in court.It doesn't means that the victim lies.

DV Act has been borrowed from USA as far as I know.

Now how does the legal system in USA and other advanced countries which have DV Act,testify that that victim is telling the truth?

They must be definately having such ways to know if the case is true or false,even if the victim has no proof.Why doesn't India follow their systems so that the truthfulness or falsity of a filed case can be known in no time?

hi,

My wife filed against me 498a, dv like...still i lwant to get her back as she does do this on no reason..can i do rcr for a favour

"They must be definately having such ways to know if the case is true or false, even if the victim has no proof" ...............

On The day when the "antergyanee" soul (who used to know whether a plaintiff is really a victim or or not, merely by its "antergyan"!! ) became extinct from the planet of Earth ................ it created a eco-system called "legal professionals and adversarial system of law"

First of all Domestic Violance Act should be applicable to both men and women as women do more physical and mental abuse these days.

Second husband or wife should get maintenace as per thier geniune requirements but in lieu of that they must do their duty towards the spouse as nothing comes for free.Government itslef do not provide free salary or pension to anyone.

Agree with you Bhaskar JI,

I think those women who seek maintenance must be made to do something in return at least, that too in proportion to the amount ordered in their favor. Afterall, a husband with high salary also needs to do lot more than a male servant at home who works for a hardly half an hour. But, they see only his salary and his capability becomes the prima facie proof of domestic violence against him!

In many cases DV reliefs are not granted merely because the wives were earning enough and in some cases it is granted in a "zero merit case with no domestic relationship at all" just because the husband is capable. So, the conclusion that we can derive is "Capable husband = prima facie domestic violence has occured; if husband is less capable than the wife then no prima facie domestic violence" no matter what the details of the case are!!!

So, less capable hubbys get full licence to do domestic violence! ....and less capable wives get full licence to harass their hubbys by false DV case.