Divorce, after 40+ years

A septuagenarian couple who had been married for over 40 years was granted a divorce by a Parsi matrimonial court headed by Justice D. Y. Chandrachud on the premises of the Bombay High Court on April 27, 2009. "I will go home with a heavy heart after granting this divorce,” Chandrachud remarked. After all attempts at reconciliation proved futile, he told the quarreling duo: "It is better for you to part, if you cannot live together in peace,” as per a report in Mumbai Mirror (MM) dated April 28, 2009.

Residents of Byculla, the couple remained unnamed in media reports. The 74-year-old woman had dragged her 78-year-old husband to court seeking divorce for all his "harassment, both physical and mental,” revealed The Times of India (TOI) of April 28. She moved the court in 2007, seeking Rs 45 lakhs as alimony. However, earlier this year she revised her claim upward and demanded two crores, saying that though her husband retired from his job in 1995 he still gets a monthly pension of Rs 50,000 and has investments and property worth seven crore rupees, reported MM on April 11, 2009. TOI reported that the husband wanted to give less and eventually agreed to a sum of Rs 35 lakhs. However, Justice Chandrachud, noting that Parsis live till a "ripe old age” due to their "long life expectancy,” asked the husband to ensure that she gets some form of health insurance. Accordingly, Rs 10 lakh more was added to cover her health concerns, and the two decided to start life anew separately.

The woman had told MM that her husband used to give her just Rs 500 a month to run the house and even expected her to save some money. She alleged that he suffered from a "Jekyll and Hyde complex…With neighbors, relatives and friends, he would laugh and talk, but he lost no opportunity to show me and our children in a bad light. He used to beat me up… he still beats me black and blue. He cursed and beat our children and distanced himself from them,” she stated in her petition, as reported by MM. On his part, the husband filed a separate application in February, alleging that when he was out of the city in November last year, his wife constructed a wall separating the two wings of their flat, which was actually two adjoining apartments merged into one, noted MM.

In a last ditch attempt to save the marriage Chandrachud spoke to the couple, their married daughter and their counsels, reported Hindustan Times on April 28. He asked the daughter if she had tried to patch up differences between her parents. "Till the time I was living with them, I tried,” she replied. Vivek Kantawala, counsel for the husband, told the court that there was no chance of reconciliation. "The couple have been living separately for over a year, and are now unable to live together,” he told MM.

"She has walked away with everything, even the (wedding) photograph,” TOI quoted the husband as saying, describing him thus: "His body was feeble but not his voice.”