Wife remarries and settles abroad...

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has reduced by half the alimony ordered to be paid by a man to his former wife.

The husband convinced the court that his salary is too low to pay the Rs.14 lakhs ordered to be paid by the Family Court. Moreover, the wife had remarried and settled abroad after divorcing him while the husband was taking care of their only son in India.

“Admittedly, after passing of the judgement and decree dated 17.03.2016 (by the family court), the respondent (wife) has migrated to Canada and has settled therein. It is also not in dispute that the respondent has remarried and the appellant is taking care of the son. Taking into account the monthly income of the appellant as well as the fact that prior to her migration to Canada, the respondent was employed as a nurse in a hospital in Mangalore. We therefore, deem it appropriate to reduce the permanent alimony from Rs.15 lakhs to Rs.7 lakhs,” the HC said modifying the lower court order.

The 49-year-old husband had approached the High Court challenging a Family Court order in Mangaluru in 2016. His appeal was heard by the division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde which gave its judgment recently.

The couple was married in 2000 in Mangaluru and had a son. The wife sought dissolution of marriage and permanent alimony and approached a family court.

The family court dissolved the marriage between them and directed the husband to pay a sum of Rs.15 lakhs by way of permanent alimony. While his appeal in the HC was pending, the court had passed an interim order in 2016 to pay Rs.7 lakh to the wife.

His advocate infor med the HC that the Rs.7 lakhs had been paid and in the meantime, the woman had remarried and migrated to Canada. The son was left behind and was being taken care of by the father.

The court was also informed that he was earning Rs.20,000 a month and would not be able to pay the full alimony of Rs.14 lakhs.

While disposing the appeal and reducing the alimony payable, the HC noted the fact that the woman’s advocate did not dispute the submission that she had settled in Canada after her remarriage and that the son was being taken care of by the father. (MFA 3597/2016)