Leander Paes moves Mumbai Sessions Court challenging ₹1.5 lakh monthly maintenance to Rhea Pillai

Tennis player Leander Paes has moved the Mumbai Sessions Court challenging a judgment of a magistrate court directing him to pay ₹1.5 lakh monthly maintenance to ex-partner Rhea Pillai [Leander Adrian Paes vs Rhea Laila Pillai and Anr.]..In February, a magistrate's court in Bandra had directed Paes to pay ₹1 lakh monthly maintenance and ₹50,000 monthly rent to Pillai in a domestic violence case.It had ruled that while Pillai was still legally married when she began living with Paes, the presence of a relationship beyond marriage was apparent..The plea by Paes, filed through advocate Prasanna Bhangale, has assailed the order on the grounds that it was erroneously passed on the basis that the relationship between him and Pillai was in the nature of marriage as defined under the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act (DV Act).The plea states that Pillai has falsely alleged being in a relationship in the nature of marriage with Paes since 2005, as she was married to Sanjay Dutt until 2008. It also underlines that in Pillai's domestic violence application, she had admitted that after the birth of their daughter in 2006, her relationship with Paes broke down irretrievably, while she was still married to Sanjay Dutt and that he was on cordial terms with her only for the sake of their child.The plea will he heard on November 17, 2022..Pillai had claimed in her plea before the Magistrate that she and Paes had been dating since 2003, that they lived together from 2005 to 2006, and that they had a child in 2006.She said that they later relocated to Bandra, where Paes' father joined them. As a result, tensions between them arose. Paes applied to the Family Court in Bandra for custody of his daughter. Following this, Pillai filed a court lawsuit under the Act in 2014, alleging that Paes had abused her..The Magistrate court while granting maintenance had highlighted the difficulties faced by women from society and from a legal standpoint, when they enter into live-in relationships."Sexual relationship beyond the ties of marriage is not widely accepted even today also. Its existence across societies is not in dispute. Several times it posed situations leading to conflict between law and morality. Such relationship put parties into peril. Particularly, a female partner, is always at the receiving end. A patriarchal society caused various injustices to a female partners involved in such relationships beyond marriage. The available legal measures for such female partner are also found to be inadequate resulting in her exploitation and abuse," the Magistrate had said.