Usually in North India, the cases do not start from an FIR under 498A or 406 directly. But it goes to CAW (Crime against women) cell first. There the husband is called for counselling where it is 'counselled' to him that unless he takes his wife back, his life could become hell, and he and his parents may have to face criminal cases under 498A, 406 etc. Fake list of stridhan/dowry articles is another problem he has to deal with.
In the South, thankfully CAW cells do not exist. However in Karnataka, Vanita Sahayvani is a kind of women's helpline, where sometimes husbands get called to if a wife files a complaint there first. The kind of counselling provided to husbands there is very similar to what goes in CAW cell - but without the torture about 406/stridhan/articles list etc. So it is a relatively mild experience compared to CAW cell.
So husbands are given two choices which are really not choices -- Take back wife who is a threatening, quarrelsome, not easy to live with female. Or be prepared to get criminal cases slapped on him and his family.
So he gets bogged down at this stage in issues like: how to get anticipatory bail, how to handle fake list in 406, and so on.
If one of the legal cases like RCR or divorce(filed by husband, wives don't file divorce at this stage) has gone to court, the drama that is called mediation is also foisted upon the husband.
So a few months pass in all this rounds of CAW, mediation, and so on. Many men think that marriage can still work out and wife can come back.
Mostly that's never how it turns out. The feminist/matriarchal family of wife/in-laws were never interested in the marriage anyway. They picked a soft target by finding a son-in-law who is most likely a high earning professional, raised in a law-abiding, good citizen, nice folks type of family. The kind of people who want to play by fair rules and trust that others will also play fair. Basically the husband's family show many traits of nice guy syndrome!
Interim maintenance - Minor headache, or Enemy Number One?
During all this, the interim maintenance petition of wife is heard in CrPC 125 or DV case. Husband is so busy in thinking of various options like bringing wife back, getting anticipatory bail, dealing with CAW/counselling etc, that he may not even think that fighting interim maintenance is very important. He may leave it to his lawyer.
Wife gets an interim maintenance award. It maybe anywhere from 5K to 10K or even more depending on husband's salary. It's only after a few months the husband realizes that while he has to fight these cases which may go on for years, he has to pay interim maintenance to wife all the while!
And he also realizes with passage of time that all the counselling in CAW about wife coming back, mediation etc were also just drama. Or maybe many people deny it but subconsciously they must be realizing that what they thought to be a marriage was actually a scam foisted on them!
Interim maintenance and maintenance are the top problems
I want to convey by way of this book that the top problems faced by Indian men are the interim maintenance and maintenance. The pace of Indian judiciary is extremely slow. Divorces on grounds of cruelty (assuming you have great evidence) are not given within less than 5-7 years, and more if wife goes for appeal to higher courts. While all these cases including criminal ones(if any) continue to run, husband is made to bleed by way of paying maintenance to wife who uses some of that money to engage lawyers and so is least bothered how long the cases will run for.
So your money is used against you. It's like supplying ammunition to opponent forces who fire the same ammunition back at you!
So reducing maintenance amount whether in interim or final orders should be the top priority of all men facing marital cases from wife. Anything else will be less than optimal.
Collecting evidence for proving innocence 498A can wait, filing RTI or TEP (tax evasion petition) can also wait. But fighting maintenance cases cannot wait because the interim orders may be given anywhere within 3-9 months and usually don't get delayed more than that.
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