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Mental Harassment by husband and in laws
Question
I got married in Dec 2022. It was an arrange marriage. After my marriage my SIL and MIL started harassing me for how they are unsatisfied by my maternal family regarding the marriage, haldi ceremony. They keep on influencing my husband against me by feeding him wrong information, be it any household chores or any pre/post marriage rituals which results in him and me arguing all the time. These kind of arguments used to start from 11-12 PM and continued till 5-6 AM. My husband shouts at the top of his voice against me and my MIL and SIL feeds him wrong information simultaneously. This happened multiple times, multiple nights. Even during pregnancy they didn’t spare me which resulted in more mental agony and physical health deterioration and after that I came to my maternal home. I delivered my baby at my maternal city and since then I have not visited my husband’s home. My baby is 4 months old now. A few days ago my husband and FIL came to my maternal home and both of them started arguing with my father, mother and me at the top of their voice which resulted in me reliving my trauma again. I don’t want to move to my husband’s home and I don’t want my husband or my in laws to harass me wherever I shift with my baby. Please give me suggestions what may I do in this situation?
Answer ( 1 )
In your fact situation, firstly you have to decide if you want to obtain divorce or just live separately from your husband. In the scenario that you are not looking for a divorce, then file a section 125 crpc petition seeking maintenance from your husband detailing the harassment and the behaviour. Meanwhile if you do not intend to move any formal criminal complaint against the inlaws and husband before the women commission then during the maintenance proceedings filed under section 125 Cr.P.C. inform the court regarding no cases filed for the sake of the minor child.
In alternate, if you wish to obtain divorce from your husband, you may move a divorce petition on the ground of cruelty against your husband which would be required to be proved by oral and documentary evidence.
The course of action would depend also on the legal action taken by your husband as well. He may move a petition under section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act seeking restitution of conjugal rights.