Bombay HC: Prove financial ability before being united with wife
The man and his wife belong to the Muslim and Hindu community respectively.
Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed a man to provide financial assurance in the form of bank deposits to ensure that his wife and child are taken care of after they join him. The man and his wife belong to the Muslim and Hindu community respectively and had been separated after the girl’s parents had complained that their daughter was kidnapped. But after the girl delivered a child, the parents abandoned her, due to which the girl had no option but to go back to the husband. However, the court wanted assurances from the man before the girl was allowed to start living with him along with the child.
A division bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre was hearing a habeas corpus writ petition filed by the man seeking to be reunited with his wife after they were separated by the police on receiving a complaint by the girls’ parents. He claimed that his wife who was being taken care of by an NGO had expressed her desire to move in with him, he sought directions to the state to expedite the process.
However, before acceding to his request in an earlier hearing the bench wanted to know whether he was in a position to take care of the girl and their child, as he was unemployed. The court had further directed him to deposit an amount of '50,000 in the name of the wife and deposit an additional Rs 5,000 per month in the name of the child to show his ability to take care of the dependents.
On Thursday when the matter came up for hearing the man submitted receipts of the fixed deposits to show compliance. When asked where he managed to get the money from, he informed the court that his brothers had helped him out. On being asked where he would be living with his wife and child after being united with them, he responded that his brother and sister-in-law living in Uttarakhand were willing to accommodate them. The court, however, sought to know what measures he would take to ensure that his wife did not become a househelp in his brother’s house, as he was unemployed.