The vocabulary here is doing heroic work.
Ten years: "a shared life."
Betrayal: "one mistake."
Him leaving: "he erased everything."
Notice who's the villain by the final line. It isn't the person who cheated ????
In marriage, dowry is an “investment scheme.”
Put in a few lakhs at the beginning…
In the next couple of years, it can become crores in divorce.
The only problem?
Getting your “investment” back can sometimes be harder than getting money out of an EPF. 🤓
Marriages are subject to market risks. Please read the offer document carefully before investing. 🤓😎
Equality is a remarkable instrument.
At the workplace: fully applicable.
At the maintenance hearing: kindly consider tradition.
At the custody hearing: kindly consider biology.
At the property settlement: kindly consider sacrifice.
A principle that switches off by venue isn't a principle. It's a strategy.
Maintenance order: enforced by salary attachment. Default means a warrant. Arrears accrue. Missed months are recoverable.
Access order: enforced by goodwill. Default means a fresh application. Nothing accrues. Missed months are gone.
Same court. Same file. Same day.
Money is recoverable. Childhood isn't.
"Both parents matter" is the most quoted line in Indian custody law.
It appears in the reasoning.
It rarely appears in the operative order.
A principle that never reaches the decretal portion isn't law. It's decoration.
A backlog is a queue that clears.
This isn't that.
First hearing at two. Interim order at six. Decree at eleven. Appeal decided at sixteen.
The childhood the case was about is over before the case is.
Delay isn't a failure of the process. By now it's the outcome.
Ask any man in family court what he wants.
Not custody. Not a reduction. Not a win.
A date that doesn't get adjourned.
That's the state of the system — the ambition has shrunk to the calendar.
"Welfare of the child is paramount."
Father asks for custody: let's examine his working hours, his travel, his remarriage, his temperament, his support system.
Father asks to reduce maintenance: let's examine nothing. He'll manage.
Same child. Same father. Two entirely different levels of scrutiny.
#FamilyCourt #GenderEquality
India has 14.2 judges per million people.
The Law Commission's recommendation is 50.
We are running the family justice system at roughly a quarter of its own recommended staffing, and then calling the result a backlog — as though it were weather rather than arithmetic.
Supreme Court, State of the Judiciary report, Nov 2023
Most people think Indian law hands young children to the mother.
Read what it actually says.
Section 6(a) HMGA: custody of a child under five shall ordinarily be with the mother.
Ordinarily — a presumption, not a rule. And it ends at five. Everything after that is judge-made, which means it can be argued.
There is a strategy hiding inside custody law, and a court finally named it.
Remove the child. Wait long enough. You are now the primary caregiver. Cite that as your ground for custody.
The Delhi High Court refused it — holding that accepting the argument would incentivise unilateral removal and alienation.
Being the only parent in the room is not the same as being the better one.