Strict laws are for women’s welfare, not for extorting money from husband: Supreme Court on divorce and alimony

Considering the rise of divorce cases in India and the recent debate on alimony after Bengaluru techie Atul Subhash died by suicide, the Supreme Court (SC) has stated that strict laws in the country are for women’s welfare and hence should not be misused for extorting money from their husbands. During the hearing of a divorce case, the SC said that the laws are not to “chastise, threaten, domineer or extort” men and so women should be careful about it.
The SC also noted that in most marriage disputes, women accuse their husbands of rape, criminal intimidation, and cruelty and this has become like a “combined package”. Commenting on it, the bench remarked, “Women need to be careful about the fact that these strict provisions of law in their hands are beneficial legislations for their welfare and not means to chastise, threaten, domineer or extort from their husbands.” It further said, “The provisions in criminal law are meant to protect and empower women, but some misuse them for purposes they were never intended for.”
Justice BV Nagarathna and Pankaj Mithal further commented that a Hindu marriage is sacred, and not a “commercial venture.” The bench also said that however, in many cases the strict laws are being misused by women and their families to negotiate the husband and his family to pay or agree to their demands. Sometimes the police too are quick to jump to conclusions, and arrest not just the husband but also his family members, even elderly people, and trial courts refrain from giving bails in FIRs of such serious offences.
“The collective effect of this chain of events is often overlooked. Even minor disputes between husband and wife snowball into ugly battles of ego and reputation, airing dirty linen in public and making reconciliation or cohabitation impossible,” the bench remarked.
These comments were made by the bench while hearing a matrimonial dispute. It dissolved the marriage between a man and his estranged wife on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of their matrimony.
The estranged wife had asked for an equal share in her ex-husband’s wealth, as she had claimed her husband’s net worth to be INR 5,000 crore with businesses and properties in India and the US. She also alleged that he had paid INR 500 crore to his first wife, excluding a house in the US, and so too should be given an equal amount of his wealth. However, the bench ordered the man to pay INR 12 crores as full and final settlement amount within a month.
Commenting on how a wife cannot seek alimony to equalise her ex-husband’s current wealth, the bench said, as reported by Hindustan Times, “It cannot be expected of the husband to maintain [his wife] as per his present status all his life. If the husband has moved ahead and is fortunately doing better in life post-separation, then asking him to always maintain the status of the wife as per his own changing status would be putting a burden on his personal progress.”
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