For the last two weeks, Saudha KV has been breathing easier. She feels she has got some measure of justice for her troubles as a divorced woman – the Kerala High Court recently ruled that her former husband should pay for her medical expenses in addition to providing maintenance.
Saudha got married to Abbas Pallakkal in 1995 at the age of 18 and lived with him in Chaliyom village in Kerala’s Kozhikode district. But five years into the marriage, her husband began to beat her and tell her that he would leave her to marry another woman. The next five years were difficult as she constantly feared for her life and for her three children.
After a particularly difficult day in 2005, she went to her parents’ home.
“My brother-in-law misbehaved with me in front of my children that day, and my husband blamed me. He suspected me of having an affair with him,” she says, adding that this was the last straw.
Despite this, she says she tried to work out a solution, and suggested that they live separately from the rest of the family, but her husband did not want her back and gave her a divorce that year. Then 28, she struggled to provide for her children by herself, but also embarked on a legal battle against her former husband for maintenance.
For a while, she worked as a domestic help but failing health forced her to give it up and move in with her brothers who could do no more than feed her and her daughters and son as they themselves are daily wage workers and are also looking after their elderly parents.
She says she could not consider going back to her in-laws’ house as she feared both her brother-in-law and her husband.
Difficult to Make Ends Meet
In 2013, a district magistrate’s court ordered Abbas to give her Rs 3.6 lakh as alimony but Abbas challenged the order in the Kerala High Court seeking a reduction. Saudha however, sought a higher amount that included her expenses in treating a kidney ailment that cost Rs 2,60,000.
In 2014, she got her eldest daughter Rahila married as she could not afford to pay for her education beyond class 12 even though she was a good student. She has to repay a bank loan of Rs 1 lakh, which she had taken to pay for the wedding expenses.
Her younger daughter Abitha is pursuing a science degree in a private college but is considering dropping out as Saudha did not have money to pay for her fees. However, the alimony might change that.
All this time, Saudha has felt cheated.
I have two girls and I had to get my eldest daughter married, even while paying for my treatment, but he did not help us in any way. Moreover, it was my brother who helped Abbas get a job in Dubai. My father had gifted some land to me and he acquired that too. Now he and his wife live on that land.
—Saudha
But with the High court order, she now feels that she could begin to rebuild her life, even though it will still be difficult. She still has to look after her son Rashid who studies in a government school nearby. He too does small-time jobs to support the family.
The Order
Saudha’s case might be an important case, says her lawyer Vinod Cheriyan, who argued the case on her behalf in the HC.
This case can now become a referral for any Muslim divorce- maintenance issues at any court in the country.
—Vinod Cheriyan, Lawyer
According to him, The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 mandates the former husband to pay for the wife’s maintenance according to her needs.
The act says:
Her former husband should pay such reasonable and fair provision and maintenance to the divorced woman as he may determine as fit and proper having regard to the needs of the divorced woman.
The judgment was based on this clause as we argued that ‘the needs’ includes the medical expenses also, and court agreed to it. —Vinod Cheriyan, Lawyer
The High Court observed that Abbas was financially well-settled on account of a prosperous fishing boat business, while Saudha and their children were living in poverty. The court has ordered Abbas to pay Rs 3.6 lakh as alimony and also for the medical expenses which amounted to Rs 2.6 lakh.
(Haritha John works with The News Minute)
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