MUMBAI: The last day of the year was also the end of a loveless marriage for 10 couples in Mumbai and the beginning of a bitter battle for a dozen others.
The mood at the Bandra family court was stark and somber as usual on Wednesday, made light only by the prancing in and out of a judge's chamber by a six-year-old asher estranged, not-on-talking-terms parents fought for access. But for 10 couples, happiness, or at least freedom, from each other was decreed by five judges
One such couple, married through virtual introduction on an online marriage site in 2013, got their mutual consent divorce by being physically present on the last day of 2014.
Advocate Arigana Pradhan had a fruitful day, her client was ready for a fresh start to his life on the first day of 2015. Also wanting a fresh start was an engineer aged 35. The start was however to a legal fight for divorce he filed on grounds of cruelty on December 31. His elderly parents had to leave home and the sadness of this year ought to be met with a fight in the new, he decided, as he sat on a shiny faux leather, partially broken, bench on the first floor.
Not all were frowning. One, separated from his wife for two years, was all smiles as he met his seven-year-old daughter, as his wife honored access orders, unlike those who contest each plea, which principal family court judge Laxmi Rao hopes to change next year.
Advocate Bhavana Jadhav, busy in one court, had a filing too. Her client, a woman, filed for custody of her 13-year-old daughter and sought to restrain her husband from meeting her.
The year ended with 8,381 cases filed till about 3pm on December 31. That's minimum 16,762 unhappy people, but more likely five times that number if both sets of parents-in- law are taken into account and seven times that if two children for each warring couple are added too. But for 20 of them, the day ended with a hope for a fresh start to make new year romantically better.
