Ruling in favour of the wronged woman, the Gujarat HC, Wednesday, dissolved a five-year marriage between a teacher and his wife, “forced” into the wedlock by the professor, despite the presence of his first wife.
The story dates back to 2018, when, according to the woman’s counsel, she was student at the Polytechnic College. The petitioner professor was her teacher and took an “intense liking to his student, younger by 12 years.”
Thereon, as her lawyers argued, he subjected her to mental harassment of sorts, threatened to mark her poorly in the subjects and what’s worse, tricked her into signing some papers. “My client gave in to the shame of being subjected to his open display of his liking. He even emotionally blackmailed her saying that his children from a previous marriage would benefit from having a mother like her,” added her legal representative.
After the marriage, the student was shocked to know that the professor’s first wife had not died and she was his “second.” She also alleged that her in-laws taunted her and demanded Rs 5 lakh from her parents for furniture and other items. Her husband and in-laws did not allow her to conceive and forced her to undergo three abortions.
Fed up of the ordeal, finally, she filed for divorce in the Amreli Family Court. The court ruled in her favour and granted divorce on grounds of cruelty. The professor claimed that he had funded the student’s studies and theirs was a love marriage, not a forced one.
The professor, not wanting to dissolve the marriage, then challenged the Family Court order in the HC.
However, the HC, also ruled in the woman’s favour.
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