Bombay High Court upholds ₹3 crore compensation to wife under Domestic Violence Act

The Bombay High Court recently upheld a trial court order directing a man to pay ₹3 crores as compensation to his estranged wife in a case under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005..A single judge bench of Justice Sharmila Deshmukh found force in the trial court's finding that the husband had committed acts of violence against the wife from 1994 to 2017 and subjected her to emotional, physical and mental abuse.The Court proceeded to note that while there is no straight-jacket formula to determine the amount of compensation payable in such cases, the compensation amount could also depend on the impact of the violence on the aggrieved person. “Admittedly both the parties are well educated and highly placed in their workplace and in social life. That being the social standing, the acts of domestic violence would be greater felt by the respondent no 1 (wife) as it would affect her self-worth. This is not to be interpreted to mean that the aggrieved person from other walks of life will not be impacted by the domestic violence suffered by them," the Court added..The High Court further observed that the trial court had granted the woman compensation after considering all the facts and after taking note of the status of the parties as well as their income.“The trial Court has considered in detail the acts of domestic violence committed by the applicant and the evidence which has come on record and on assessment of the entire facts and circumstances of the case held that the applicant has committed the acts of domestic violence continuously from the year 1994 to 2017 and has subjected wife to physical, economic, mental and emotional abuse," the Court noted, while upholding the trial court order. .The couple before the Court had got married in 1994 after which they moved to the United State of America (USA). In 2005, the couple returned to Mumbai. However, in 2014 the husband went back to the USA without his wife. In 2017, the husband filed a plea in the US to divorce his wife, after the wife filed a domestic violence complaint against him in Mumbai. In 2018, a US court allowed the husband's divorce plea. In 2023, a magistrate in India ordered the man to pay ₹3 crores as compensation to his estranged wife, apart from ₹1.5 lakhs as monthly maintenance. The man was also ordered to provide suitable accommodation to the aggrieved woman or, in the alternative, pay ₹75,000 has monthly rent. The husband challenged this magistrate order. After a sessions court rejected his plea, the man moved the Bombay High Court for relief. .Justice Deshmukh of the High Court found that the trial court order was based on a finding that there was continuous acts of domestic violence between 1994 and 2017. As such, the order could not be faulted with, the High Court said."The evidence on record clearly demonstrate the acts of domestic violence which are committed in India as well as in USA. The domestic violence also includes an aspect of economic abuse, which also takes within its fold the deprivation of stridhan of aggrieved person," the High Court observed. Accordingly, the High Court rejected the husband’s application and upheld the trial court’s order in favour of the wife..Advocates Vikramaditya Deshmukh and Sapana Rachure appeared for husband. Advocate Ashutosh Kulkarni assisted the court as amicus curiae..[Read Judgment]