The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected the plea filed by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah seeking divorce from his estranged wife Payal Abdullah.
A Division Bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan upheld the family court order which had rejected Abdullah’s plea.
The High Court held that there was no infirmity in the family court order and agreed with the family court’s findings that Omar Abdullah’s allegations of cruelty against Payal Abdullah were vague.
“We find no infirmity with the view taken by the family court that the allegations of cruelty were vague and unacceptable and the appellant failed to prove any act which can be termed cruelty either physical or mental. Consequently we find no merit in the appeal. The same is accordingly dismissed,” the Division Bench said.
A detailed order is awaited.
Omar and Payal Abdullah got married in September 1994 but have been living separately for a long time.
Abdullah’s divorce plea was rejected by a family court on August 30, 2016. The family court had held that he failed to prove “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage”.
It had said that Abdullah could not prove his claims of “cruelty” or “desertion” and that he was not able to explain a single circumstance that made it impossible for him to continue the relationship with Payal Abdullah.
Abdullah then moved the High Court.
He claimed that his marriage had broken down irretrievably. He said that while he and Payal Abdullah got married in September 1994, they have been living separately since 2009.
He challenged the trial court order before the Delhi High Court in September 2016.
Recently, the High Court had enhanced the maintenance that Omar Abdullah had been ordered to pay to Payal Abdullah.
Justice Subramonium Prasad ordered the National Conference leader to pay ₹1.5 lakh per month as maintenance to Payal and ₹60,000 per month each to his two sons for the time they were enrolled in law school.
In proceedings under Section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the trial court had granted interim maintenance of ₹75,000 per month to Payal Abdullah and ₹25,000 to their son till he turns 18.
Advocates Malavika Rajkotia, Ramakant Sharma, Trisha Gupta, Ekta Sharma, Purva Dua, Sajal Arora, Prateek Avasthi and Mayank Grover appeared for Omar Abdullah.
Payal Abdullah was represented by advocates Prosenjeet Banerjee, Shreya Singhal, Sarthak Bhardwaj, Anshika Sharma, Pranaya Sahai and Akriti Anand.
