Can Contempt lies against who withdraws Mutual Consent Petition

After signing the agreement by mutual consent to file for divorce, will either of the partner face contempt proceedings if they have any 2nd thought? That is the question the Delhi HC asked recently while referring to a batch of 8 separate divorce petitions to a larger bench. There have been contradictory views in earlier rulings Justice Manmohan expressed some serious doubts on the practice of the courts hauling up spouses for contempt if they fail to honour their earlier stand of divorce by mutual consent during the 6 month “cooling off” period. Section 13 B of the Hindu Marriage Act allows for ‘divorce by mutual consent’ in a 2 step process. The 1st motion of divorce can be filed by a couple if they haven’t been living together for at least one year. After this, the law mandates a “waiting period or cooling off period” of 6 to 18 months. When this period ends, the spouses can either withdraw their consent, & attempt to continue their married life, or file the 2nd motion for divorce, after this their separation is finalized. Even in the case of a “contested divorce”, where there’s a criminal complaint filed by either of the spouses or any 1 of them comes to court for a divorce against the other’s will- the couple gets a waiting period to resolve the differences. During this period of mediation, if the partners agree to the terms of getting mutual separation, then they file a plea for divorce by mutual consent. Say, a couple has filed a divorce petition under Sec. 13B(1) (divorce by mutual consent) or a motion under Section 13B(2) of the Act or both, but then 1 of them decides to change their mind in view of the option to renege/reconsider their decision of taking divorce by mutual consent under Section 13 B(2) of the Act”. the question is whether they should be held liable for contempt? It was raised before the single Bench of the Delhi High Court recently. The Apex Court, and Benches of Mumbai High Court and Delhi High Court earlier have given differing judgments on finality of agreement in the divorce mediations. In one case, the wife had refused to file the 2nd motion through mutual consent for divorce, after receiving part payment of the alimony, as she had “changed her mind” about the terms of custody for her child. The High Court had said that the “erring spouse” can’t be allowed to “take any advantage” of the option allowed in the cases of divorce by mutual consent. Citing many “contradicting judgments”, Justice Manmohan expounded that since Apex Court has held that the “consent” for divorce must “continue till date of the decree”, the right of parties to change their minds cannot be taken away. By Team Daniel & Daniel 9884883318

Adulterous wife cannot claim Maintenance or Alimony in India

The Indian Courts  declared  that a divorced wife is living in ‘illicit relationship’ with man other than her former husband is disqualified from claiming maintenance from her former husband. The decree obtained by the husband for divorce on proving the adulterous life of the wife cannot give a license to her to continue to live in illicit relationship and to get her right to claim maintenance revived.

  The court also distinguished the facts of this with earlier decisions of Supreme Court which had held that Section 125(4) of the Code of Criminal procedure does not apply to divorced wife. so far as adultery is concerned, the above Judgment cannot be made applicable, because even after the decree of divorce, the divorced wife carries the obligation not to live in relationship with any other man.

When a  Court granted a decree for divorce dissolving the marriage, precisely on the ground that the wife was living in adultery. During the pendency of the said matrimonial dispute before the Family Court, wife filed petition claiming maintenance. As per Section 4 of Section 125 of the Code, “No wife shall be entitled to receive an allowance for the maintenance or the interim maintenance and expenses of proceeding, as the case may be, from her husband under this section if she is living in adultery, or if, without any sufficient reason, she refuses to live with her husband, or if they are living separately by mutual consent.

The Author K.P.Satish Kumar M.L. is the leading divorce Attorney in Chennai

To Contact Team Daniel & Daniel @ 9884883318

Divorce can easily obtain on the ground of Religious Conversion

Marriage and religion are very closely intertwined in the Indian society. Marriages are primarily based on the religion one follows. Since parents tend to arrange marriages for their children, they will scout for a match in their own community following the same religion. Conversion after marriage can be a tricky thing for the partner who has not been taken into confidence before the change happens. According to The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, if a person ceases to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion, he or she will be eligible to apply for divorce based on the ground of conversion. 

Conversion of the spouse to other religion was only for the purpose of circumventing the provision of Section 494 of Indian Penal Code, 1860. Conversion to Islam by a Hindu spouse does not per se lead to dissolution of the marriage. It only gives a right to the other spouse to file a petition under Hindu Marriage Act for divorce. Under the pristine Hindu Law as well, conversion did not operate per se as a dissolution of marriage. A Hindu spouse who ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion does not acquire any right under the Hindu Marriage Act. On the other hand, he or she exposes himself or herself to a claim for divorce by the other spouse on the ground of such conversion. The spouse who remains a Hindu gets a right under the Hindu Marriage Act to seek dissolution of the marriage with the spouse who since the marriage ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion.

The conditions before the Hindu marriage Act when a Hindu wife became convert to the Muslim faith and then married a Mohammedan, it was held that her earlier marriage with a Hindu husband was not dissolved by her conversion. She was charged and convicted of bigamy under S.494 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 prior to the Hindu Marriage Act.

After the Hindu Marriage Act if a marriage solemnised, can only be dissolved by a decree of divorce on any of the grounds enumerated in the Act. One of the grounds for divorce is that “the other party has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion”. 

The Author K.P.Satish Kumar M.L. is the leading Divorce lawyer in Chennai, Tamilnadu.

Talk to the Team Daniel & Daniel for your matrimonial Problems @ 9884883318.

Can adultery be condoned by Indian Husbands or Wife

Indian courts have held that adultery can be condoned by the other spouse if he/she cohabits with the adulterer even after the knowledge of adultery. The idea behind this is that adultery is considered as a repulsive matrimonial offence and even after the knowledge of the other spouse committing adultery, if the non-adulterous spouse continues cohabitation, it is considered as a condonation of the act of adultery.

The Supreme Court of India in N. G. Dastane vs S. Dastane held that condonation means forgiveness of the matrimonial offense and restoration of spouses to the same position as he or she occupied before the matrimonial offense was committed. Hence, condonation implies both forgiveness and restoration, that is forgiveness by the non-offending spouse and restoration or mending of ways of the offending spouse. If the offending spouse does not mend his or her ways even after commitment of mending ways, it does not constitute condonation of matrimonial offense by the non-offending spouse

Author K.P.Satish Kumar is one of the Top Divorce Lawyer in Chennai.

To Contact Team Daniel & Daniel @ 9884883318

How to prove adultery in India

In a case, the Indian courts had held that ‘The Court usually infers adultery from the fact that the respondent shared a bed or bedroom for the night with a person of opposite sex other than the petitioner or from the fact that the respondent had been carrying on an association with a person of the opposite sex other than the petitioner and there is evidence of illicit affection or undue familiarity between them coupled with an opportunity for them to have committed adultery.’ Therefore we can understand from the above, to prove adultery, the petitioner has to prove that his/her spouse

a. Voluntarily shared a private moment with a person of the opposite sex such as a bedroom, an apartment etc…

b. Has an illicit affection or undue familiarity with the person of the opposite sex. This implies acts of the spouse which are generally forbidden by law, rules or customs of the society and which tend to generate suspicion in the mind of a person

c. The spouse and the person of opposite sex should have an opportunity to commit adultery. For example, if the accused spouse and the other person are in a room alone for a few moments, the 3^rd condition is not satisfied as there is no opportunity for them to commit adultery.

d. All the above 3 conditions viz. voluntarily sharing of a private moment, illicit affection/undue familiarity and opportunity to commit adultery should exist at the same time when the said act of adultery is alleged to be performed. This is required so that the conditions of preponderance of probability is met.

As mentioned above direct evidence of adultery is not available, circumstantial evidence is required to be produced in courts. It is to be noted that the circumstances should be such that it should lead to a necessary conclusion that adultery was committed. This can be proved by preponderance of probability method enumerated above.

Adultery can also be proved by

a. evidence of non-access and birth of children

b. contracting venereal disease

c. confessions and admissions

Hence, if the wife delivers a baby or conceives a child, provided the husband does not have access to the wife during the time she was expected to conceive the foetus, is a proof of adultery by the wife.

Similarly, if either spouse contracts a venereal disease, it can be argued that such a disease is spread due to sexual intercourse, which the spouse may have had with another partner.

Further, any confession and admission by the adulterer is also considered as satisfactory proof of commission of adultery.

Author Advocate K.P.Satish Kumar M.L. is the leading family court lawyer in Chennai

Talk to the Team Daniel & Daniel @ 9884883318

What is Adultery in India

Adultery may be defined as a voluntary sexual intercourse by a married person with a partner other than his/her spouse. Therefore, the definition of adultery brings out a few ingredients, which are:

a. It is a voluntary act of the parties. A forceful act cannot be termed as adultery

b. Adultery can be indulged into only by a married person. A sexual intercourse by an unmarried person cannot be termed as adultery

c. The sexual intercourse should be with a person other than the adulterer’s spouse

Therefore, all the above 3 ingredients are important for an act to be termed as adultery.

Adultery  is a ground for divorce in the Indian Marriage Laws. The act of adultery is not a ground for divorce for the moral turpitude involved in it but for voluntary surrender to another person of the reproductive organs of the guilty person. Hence, adultery is actually an offense against the spouse in a marital relationship and not an offense of moral turpitude.

A question which comes up during discussions with married people, whose spouses have indulged in adultery, is a question of how to prove it during a divorce proceedings. As a divorce proceeding is civil in nature, the proof need not be as strict as in a criminal case and therefore proof beyond reasonable doubt is not required.

Adultery can very rarely, if ever, be proved by the direct evidence of witnesses who saw the parties in flagrante delicto and witnessed the act. In most cases, the evidence must be circumstantial in character and must depend upon the situation spoken to in regard to which the act is alleged, and the probabilities relating to that situation. Therefore, a direct evidence is not required to prove adultery, in fact direct evidence, if produced in the court, could be negative. The reason is that adultery is a secret act and it is highly improbable that there could be a witness to such a secret act. Only proof of preponderance of probabilities is required to prove adultery. In common parlance this means that the proposition is most likely to be true in a given situation. If the probability is more than 50% that the given proposition being true, the test of preponderance of probability is met and the proposition is considered to be true. A single act of sexual inter-course is not adultery. 

The Author Advocate K.P.Satish Kumar M.L. is the Madras High Court Advocate and a leading family court advocate in Chennai.

Talk to the Daniel & Daniel Helpline:- 9884883318 

Guidelines to fix interim maintenance to Indian Wife.

The section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides Hindu wife to get interim maintenance when the divorce or other family court proceedings are pending. The act and the Indian courts has fixed certain criteria to calculate and assess the maintenance amount to be paid by the Husband to wife under S.24 of Hindu Marriage Act.

The Hindu marriage Act says that both the income of the wife and husband should be assessed before fixing the interim maintenance. Without determining the husbands income the court cannot fix the maintenance amount to the wife. Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act also provides maintenance to the husband from the wife.

On considering the income tax returns to fix the husbands income the court in VD Mehta V. KV Mehta states that the income tax returns do not reflects true position of income of a party for several reason, and cannot be taken as a sole guide for income of the party in maintenance proceedings.

If wife is taking the support of father and brother then also it is not considered in assessing the quantum of maintenance to be awarded by the court

cost of litigation

The cost of litigation shall also include what is spent by the applicant for travelling a distance from place of her residence to the court and if woman travels a long journey and require assistance than husband would required to pay the expenses for both the persons.

Maintenance of the Children

If Children are under the protection of the wife, the court will be justified in taking that circumstances into account in awarding maintenance to the wife. The Supreme court case in Jasbit Kaur sehgal V. District Judge Dehradun & Ors has held that no doubt section 24 of HMA talks about maintenance to wife during the pend ency of proceedings but this section cannot be read isolation and cannot be restricted meaning to hold that it is maintenance to the wife alone.

Husband Refused  to pay maintenance

If the husband refuses to pay the maintenance amount then the execution of the order of maintenance is not only one remedy the wife can obtain, but stay on proceedings if initiated by the husband can also be obtained from the court.

Quantum of Maintenance

On fixing the Quantum of maintenance it should be determined from an estimate of monthly income allowing for uncertainties, total number of dependents including wife and then fixing share of respondent. The wife cannot claim the maintenance amount beyond reasonable amount.

Article by Chennai Leading Lawyer Mr.K.P.Satish Kumar M.L.

Talk to the Leading Divorce Lawyer in Chennai @ 9884883318