‘Birth of two children not possible without residing in shared household’: HC

MUMBAI: The birth of two children is not possible if their parents don’t reside in a shared household, a sessions court recently said while rejecting the appeal filed by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Dhananjay Munde against a magisterial court’s order directing him to pay ₹2 lakh per month as maintenance to his estranged first wife, Karuna Sharma, and their daughter.

In a detailed order dated April 5, which became available on Wednesday, additional sessions judge Shaikh Akbar Shaikh Jafar said, “Prima facie the respondent No. 1 (Sharma) was in relation with the appellant (Munde) in the nature of marriage and she has given birth to two children of the appellant, which is not possible without residing in shared household. Therefore, she is entitled to claim the reliefs as provided under the DV Act.”

Rejecting Munde’s claim that Sharma was not his legally wedded wife and, therefore, not entitled to claim maintenance from him under provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act, 2005, the court said a woman in a live-in relationship akin to marriage is entitled to claim relief under the Act.

The court also rejected Munde’s contention that Sharma was not entitled to maintenance as she earns around ₹15 lakh per month. It said that Sharma and her children were entitled to Munde’s lifestyle as an MLA, so there was nothing wrong with granting her interim maintenance.

In February, a metropolitan magistrate court at Bandra had ordered Munde to pay interim monthly maintenance of ₹2 lakh to Sharma and their daughter, Shivani. This was after Sharma approached the court in 2022 invoking provisions of the DV Act, claiming she had been subjected to physical and emotional abuse during their marriage.

According to Sharma, she and Munde got married in January 1998. She claimed that Munde refused to take her to his native place in Beed, claiming that the relationship was not acceptable to his family. The couple later had two children—son Shishiv and daughter Shivani—and everything was smooth till 2018, when Munde suddenly started avoiding her, she told the court.

Sharma eventually learned that Munde had married another woman. When she confronted Munde about his second marriage, he allegedly told her he had to do it because of family pressure and to maintain his public image. However, he assured Sharma that he would always treat her as his first wife, she claimed.

Sharma also told the court that supporters of the NCP leader attacked her when she tried to go to his native place in Beed in November 2020. She alleged that she was subjected to physical and emotional abuse and, therefore, sought monthly maintenance and a one-time compensation. Munde had denied that he had married Sharma and argued that the DV Act was thereby not applicable. He also rejected the charges of physical and emotional abuse.

Metropolitan magistrate AB Jadhav refused to accept Munde’s claim of a lack of domestic relationship with Sharma. It noted that in at least two documents submitted by Sharma, Munde had admitted his marriage with her. He had also mentioned the names of their children—Shishiv and Shivani—as dependents in his election affidavits.

The court ruled that the NCP leader’s denial of a marital relationship and refusal of conjugal rights amounted to emotional abuse, so Sharma was entitled to monthly maintenance. It ordered the former cabinet minister to pay ₹1.25 lakh per month to Sharma and ₹75,000 per month to their daughter.