My sister, now 24, married a man, now 32, we knew for long in our locality. She did a love marriage (arya samaj mandir marriage) by going against the family as the man was of different caste. During the time of marriage, both of them were banished by their families. Our family was more stern because we had married her previously at age 15 (though legally invalid). But after some time, the man's family accepted thier son and as I now know, she never got the dignified status of the 'Bahu'. They have a son of 3 years and are living separately from the man's family.
Recently, I came to know that the behaviour of the husband changed and my sister was beaten brutally just after 7 months into the marriage. And during the course of 5 years, she has been beaten many times and hospitalized too due to the cruelity. As I know the man, he is loyal to her and also fulfils her demands but when he is angry, he beats her so brutally that she becomes unconscious for several hours, he even beats her in front of other people and sometimes she got hospitalized (thats how I came to know her position).
The problem is our family has cut all ties with my sister and thats the prime reason why she bore all this beatings over the years. I know my family would accept her but would force her to abondon her child as she can remarry for she is still young.
with this background, I post my questions:
1. she is willing to divorce her but the man is not agreeing, what steps can be done?
2. In case our family doesn't accept her back, where can she stay during Filing-divorce to Grant-of-divorce?
3. During the time between divorce filing and actual granting, what rights do the man have?
(When my sister married the man 5 years back, she wrote a letter in Police station that her family members bore no relations to her now and that we are dead to her, does that letter has any significance?)
