"She has walked away with everything, even the (wedding) photograph,” exclaimed a 78-year-old man in Bombay high court on Monday. His body was feeble but not his voice. Neither was the resolve of the septaguanerian Parsi couple to end their 40-year-old marriage.
"It is easier for the court to sanction a divorce when the parties are young, say 25 years old. We know what old age care entails, but if both the husband and wife are willing and have mutually consented to a divorce, we shall grant it,” said a special Parsi matrimonial court headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud on the HC premises. The couple went their separate ways to their homes, divided by a wall in between after the husband agreed to shell out Rs 45 lakh to her.
In this case, the 74-year-old wife had dragged the husband to court seeking divorce for all his "harassment, both physical and mental”.
She had moved court in 2007 and sought Rs 45 lakh as alimony but earlier this year, demanded Rs 2 crore. The husband wanted to give less and eventually agreed to give Rs 35 lakh and the flat. But Justice Chandrachud, noting that Parsis tend to live till the "ripe old age” due to their "long life expectancy”, said the husband ought to also ensure that she gets a health insurance cover of sorts. So, the husband finally added Rs 10 lakh more to cover her health concerns and the couple split their once combined house into two and decided to re-start life through separate doors.
The wife agreed to relinquish any other claim to the house. Earlier, she said their marriage had severed years ago even though they were living as man and wife.
It took Justice Chandrachud over an hour of deliberations that included discussing with the couple’s daughter in court to finally accept that the marriage had to end. The judge intially threw up several options to try and save the marriage but the couple had made up their mind to move out and on.
Original article here.