Dismissing a man’s revision, Justice Sunder Mohan of the Madras High Court upheld a family court order granting Rs 1 lakh monthly maintenance to a woman and Rs 1.5 lakh for their minor son, holding that proof of marriage under Section 125 CrPC need not meet the standard of a bigamy trial.
The Kerala High Court has declared a wife the exclusive owner of 7 cents of land and a two-storey house at Manjeri, bought in the joint names of the spouses with her father’s money, and directed the husband to vacate within three months, while rejecting her claim for 80 sovereigns of gold, Rs 3.35 lakh and past maintenance and the husband’s counterclaim.
The Allahabad High Court has dismissed Mohammad Kamil’s criminal revision against an order directing him to pay Rs 3,500 a month to his wife under Section 125 CrPC, holding that a husband capable of earning cannot escape maintenance by pleading that he has no job or that his business is doing poorly.
The Delhi High Court has dismissed Poonam Tanwar’s challenge to a 2012 revisional order discharging her in-laws under Section 498A and all accused under Section 406 IPC, holding the accused-wise view was reasonably open, while disapproving the Sessions Judge’s reasoning on the car variant, her return to the matrimonial home and women implicating relatives.
The Karnataka High Court, Dharwad Bench, has held that Section 14 of the Family Courts Act overrides the certificate requirement of Section 65-B of the Evidence Act, so a Family Court may receive video recordings without a certificate, and has upheld the dismissal of a husband’s suit to declare his marriage void and a decree of restitution of conjugal rights for his wife.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed a husband’s appeals against the refusal of divorce on grounds of cruelty and desertion and a decree of restitution of conjugal rights for his wife, holding that quarrels, family friction and separation do not amount to cruelty or desertion without proof of conduct of the required gravity.
The Delhi High Court has granted anticipatory bail to an elderly man accused by his daughter-in-law of sexual misconduct and other offences in a matrimonial FIR, citing the four-year delay in the complaint, the absence of specific dates, and the lack of any real need for custodial interrogation, while cautioning that its observations are only for bail.
The Karnataka High Court has quashed POCSO and IPC proceedings against a father, holding that no material supported the accusation and that the complaint followed a setback in custody proceedings, and has partly quashed a related dowry harassment case, sparing the husband’s parents but not the husband.
A retired general manager won damages after being evicted from his official accommodation, but died while the appeal was pending. The Delhi High Court held that his award for mental agony and loss of prestige abated with his death under Section 306 of the Succession Act, since personal-injury claims do not survive to legal heirs, while upholding the smaller sum for damage to his goods.
Holding that liability under Section 82 of the BNS attaches to the spouse who already has a subsisting marriage and not to the person they marry, the Madras High Court granted anticipatory bail to a woman arrayed as the second accused, observing that on her case she and the complainant stand as two women wronged by the same man rather than as accused and victim.