ANURAG VIJAYKUMAR GOEL Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Matrimonial acrimony has left the parties fighting in courts for eight long years, after a brief conjugal life of one year and nine months. The parties were both divorced once and had attempted yet another experiment at marriage, which too failed miserably. The appellant-husband asserts that the 2nd respondent-wife (hereinafter referred to as the respondent) got a fair settlement as alimony from the earlier divorce; which, we find at the outset, is irrelevant in the adjudication of the present dispute. The appellant has an autistic child from the first marriage and the ownership of the apartment he jointly owned with his first wife was released in his favour in the best interest of the minor child. The parties were residing in the said apartment, viz: A-52, Kalpataru Habitat, Dr. S.S. Rao Road, Mumbai; which is one of the bone of contentions in the dispute, when they became estranged.

(2.) The appellant asserts that it was due to irreconcilable disputes resulting in constant harassment by the wife that he left the apartment and moved to Faridabad to stay with his parents and his differently abled child, also forsaking his lucrative employment in a private bank. The respondent on the other hand alleges continued intimidation and domestic violence at the hands of the appellant after which he abandoned her and left her high and dry without any means to survive. Only in desperation, she brought her parents to stay with her in the flat of the appellant; her matrimonial home.

(3.) The disputes between the appellant and the respondent resulted in a complaint Annexure P-3 filed inter-alia under Sec. 498-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for brevity, 'I.P.C.') leading to registration of an F.I.R. which resulted in the launch of a criminal prosecution, to set aside which the appellant approached the High Court. The Order declining revisional jurisdiction under Sec. 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (for brevity, 'Cr.P.C.) has led to the present appeal. In the meanwhile, the respondent initiated a criminal prosecution under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 against the appellant and his parents in May 2017, in which month itself the appellant filed a petition for divorce in the jurisdictional Court at Delhi. The Family Court, Saket, New Delhi before which the application for divorce was pending referred the matter for mediation to the Principal Counsellor. A settlement agreement was reached, which is annexed herewith as Annexure P-10, signed by both the parties on 1/9/2022.