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The wife returned to her parents' house alleging that her husband did not consummate the relationship with her as he was gay.
A Mumbai Sessions Court recently upheld the order of the Trial Court directing an alleged 'gay' man to pay maintenance to his estranged wife.
Additional Sessions Judge Dr. AA Joglekar observed that the term 'aggrieved person' under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (Domestic Violence Act) would not just include a woman who suffers physical abuse but also sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse.
The Trial Court had directed the husband to pay Rs. 15,000 maintenance to the wife against which the husband had moved an appeal before the Sessions Court.
The Sessions Court referred to Section 3 of the Domestic Violence Act which provides the definition of domestic violence and observed that the term domestic violence in corporates for a wider scope and it is not at all limited to mere physical injuries or abuse, but the same can also be stretched pertaining to sexual, verbal, emotional and economical abuse.
Court noted that in her testimonial evidence before the Trial Court the wife had categorically stated to have accessed the photographs stored in the husband's mobile where he was nude along with other male individuals. The screenshots of those images were filed on record which were neither challenged nor rebutted by way of written submissions.
The court, therefore, held that since the wife had been subjected to such emotional and mental abuse from her husband which substantially proved domestic violence, it was incumbent upon the husband to maintain the wife.
The marriage between the couple took place in December 2016. However, when despite wife's several attempts, there was no marital intercourse or any such affection from the husband, she returned to her parents' house. The wife alleged that she had once caught her husband to be indulged in sex chatting with a male and also found a fictitious facebook account created by him which reflected his compromising position with other men.
However, the husband had objected to the allegations and said that it was the wife who did not allow him to establish any physical relationship on the pretext of her preparing for competitive exams. He had also claimed that the wife had voluntarily left the matrimonial and she also failed to place any such documentary evidence in respect of the allegations raised by her.
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