Hi
My sister has filed for divorce after 13 years of marriage on grounds of domestic violence by her husband. She has 2 kids (12 yr old son & 9 yr old daughter). She was suffering from domestic violence right from 1st year of marriage but we kept trying to talk to my bro-in-law, who (along with his mother) says that its ok for a woman to get beaten up in their family. Both of them earn almost equal salaries from their respective govt jobs. Right after 1st year of her marriage, she was banned from visiting her parents or even calling them. Even if she called us once and he found out, he would simply start shouting at her for hours, sometimes beating her up (along with his mother) with anything available next to him, like a footwear or a book, or even helmet. He would go out of the house and won't come back for 1-2 days in anger. He never loved the kids, never took them out, never helped them with their studies or even brought toys for them.
She left that house 3 years ago along with the kids and started living with us. He never visited her or asked to see the kids for 2 years. She filed for divorce around a year back, after which my bro-in-law asked the court to allow him visitation rights. Court allowed 4 hours per month. We would normally have someone from our family accompanying the kids (me or my father) on visitation. He would bring camera during visitation and will take video of everything, even if we are having a laugh with the kids. He would tell the court later that we were poisoning the kids' with bad opinions about their Dad. He would ask them to smile forcefully and take their photos to show the court later. He also started abusing me and my Dad a lot during visitation. He would bring his family members to serve as witness.
Court sent them for mediation, after the end of which we asked for maintenance (or alimony) in case we get a mutual divorce. He is now saying that if he will be given 1 hour per month as visitation (as a ruling after the end of mediation), he will only give 1 lakh as alimony. And if we ask for more money, he would only give it if we allow the kids to live with him for 6 months in a year. He knows my sister won't let the kids go for 6 months, so he is taking advantage of it. He has given us an option: No visitation-No Money, wherein we won't get a single penny from him as maintenance or alimony but in return, he will never visit the kids in future. Looking at the trouble he has caused us during previous visitations, we are liking this offer, though we are not getting any money for securing the future of the kids.
1. Do you have any suggestions on this case please?
2. Also, please let me know how much maintenance can we ask from him; my sister has to support herself and 2 kids.
3. Also, will she get any part of his assets (2 properties, out of which 1 is ancestral, car, bike, bank accounts etc)?
Thanks
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