| Court-cleared alimony not enough for her! |
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| Written by Sameer Ranjan Bakshi |
| Monday, 16 March 2009 13:06 |
A divorcee who received an alimony amount of Rs 6 lakh has stunned her ex-husband and his family by sending a notice asking for moreParting may or may not be sweet sorrow for spouses who go their separate ways, but it can be pure misery when matters boil down to getting extra money out of an ex-partner. Sample this: A woman who got formally separated from her husband in Bangalore and received Rs 6 lakh as alimony went back to her hometown, Kolkata, and filed a petition in the family court there seeking more money. The incident, which has come as a shock to the Shah family residing on Kumara Krupa Road in the city, has raised questions about the way issues are sorted out by family courts. “We paid Rs 6 lakh to our daughter-in-law in the court here and the case filed by her against our son Dhirendra was dismissed. She had promised the court that she will not claim anything else from us in future. But just when we are trying to come to terms with it, another case has been filed against us in Kolkata. If cases are being filed against our son in different courts despite the permanent settlement, how do we handle it? This is nothing but another way of harassment,” 67-year-old silk businessman Naveen Shah told Bangalore Mirror.Dhirendra had got married to Asha Mehta, a native of Kolkata, in 1996 through a proposal that came via a common friend. After four years of marital discord, they decided to go for a divorce citing noncompatibility. A case was filed in the family court here in 2002. “There was no dowry harassment charge, the couple just wanted to separate as there was no cordial relationship between them,” Naveen said. Though the court tried to ensure reconciliation between the two, it did not work. Finally, family court principal judge M Chidananda Rao allowed for divorce by mutual consent in 2006 after the Shahs paid Asha Rs 6 lakh as alimony. But the Shahs’ relief was short-lived. Like a bolt from the blue, a notice came to Dhirendra’s family from a court in Kolkata. The notice, sent at the behest of Asha, directed Dhirendra to appear before the family court in Kolkata, one year after their divorce. This time, Asha claimed maintenance of Rs 5,000 per month apart from arrears of maintenance due from December 2006 to October 2007. Dhirendra said, “She claimed an amount of Rs 55,000 for that period. How can I give her an additional amount when I have paid her the final settlement in front of a judge in Bangalore? I don’t understand law, but all I can say is there is a huge loophole here as a case that has been settled here has been contested again from another place.” Naveen alleged,”When the marriage happened, Asha’s family claimed they were settled in Kolkata. But after one year of the marriage, they shifted to Bangalore. Even now the notices come from Kolkata, where Asha claims to be staying. But she stays here and I have seen her. I have collected her father’s job experience letter and seen his name in the voter’s list in Bangalore.” Asha and her family were unavailable for comments. The Shah family’s lawyer H J Sanghvi said, “The Kolkata court has to take cognisance of the order passed by the principal family court, Bangalore. Orelse it is akin to further harassment inflicted on Dhirendra. Kolkata is not iBangladesh or any other foreign country. India is a single country and the law is same everywhere in the country.” But the Shahs continue to be worried. “We just want this to end so that we can live peacefully,” they said. |