Mumbai: A sessions court on Saturday dismissed an appeal filed by a state legislator against an interim order of a Bandra magistrate’s court that directed him to pay Rs 1.25 lakh per month as maintenance to a woman who claims to be his first wife. The woman’s advocate, C V Thombre, confirmed the development. The maintenance was ordered to be paid from the date of her filing an application in 2022 under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.
In the appeal filed in Feb, the MLA reiterated his submissions made before the lower court of never being married to the woman. The Bandra court “didn’t apply his mind and passed an arbitrary order giving interim maintenance,” stated the appeal.
The MLA, in his appeal, said despite knowing his marital status, the woman voluntarily entered into a relationship until Nov 2020, which his family was aware of. The appeal said the maintenance order is “contrary to law, facts of the case and documents on record” and the woman “failed to establish” how she was an “aggrieved person” under the DV Act.
On Feb 4, observing that the woman was prima facie subjected to domestic violence at the hands of the man, the Bandra magistrate’s court ordered the MLA to pay a total interim monthly maintenance of Rs 2 lakh to the woman and their unmarried daughter – Rs 1.25 lakh for the wife and Rs 75,000 for the daughter. The woman filed a domestic violence case against the man in 2022 and sought interim maintenance of Rs 5 lakh for each of her two children and herself and Rs 25 lakh as interim compensation.
“It appears that the relations between them are strained, and inference can be drawn that, as the respondent (man) is denying the marital status of applicant No 1 (woman), she is emotionally abused by the respondent, which amounts to domestic violence,” the court said. The MLA was also directed to pay Rs 25,000 as costs of application.