Mumbai: Court relief for second wife of US-based software engineer used as surrogate – Times of India

MUMBAI: A US-based software engineer from India who met a city-based woman online and married her, only to use her as a surrogate as his first wife was unable to conceive, has been ordered to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 1.5 lakh to her. While a family court had earlier directed the man to pay her Rs one lakh monthly allowance, a magistrate’s court hearing the woman’s domestic violence complaint has ordered him to pay her an interim maintenance of Rs 50,000.
The woman filed a domestic violence complaint in 2017, alleging that the man had told her he couldn’t consummate the marriage as his first wife had forbidden it and wanted her to be artificially inseminated. He also said he would send his sperm in a “sperm storage kit”. The woman claimed that since she failed to conceive due to medical reasons, she was forced to do household chores, deprived of food and introduced as house help to guests.
“Respondent No. 1 (husband) has left for USA leaving the complainant behind. He abandoned her in 2014, without any financial, moral, physical or emotional support,” the magistrate’s court said. It noted that the man earned a monthly salary of Rs 7.5 lakh while the woman was without a job. Her matrimonial home was also sold by her mother-in-law. The court passed an ex parte order as the man did not appear before the court.
The woman told the court that since she met with an accident during her school days and underwent corrective eye surgery, she wasn’t finding a match for marriage easily. She said the man had approached her through a match-making website and agreed to marry her despite her “eye defect”. The woman said he was looking for a second wife without divorcing his first. She said that her family’s meagre income and the fact that the man pursued her relentlessly made her accept his proposal.
The woman alleged it was only after the wedding that she realised that he had married her only to have children. In fact, he and his family even kept this second marriage a secret from their relatives. The woman said the very next day after her wedding, she was given an ovulation prediction kit. The woman alleged that it was only after the surrogacy plans failed that the man continuously maintained physical relations with her. But even then, she wasn’t considered a family member by either him or her in-laws.
The woman alleged the man’s first wife was constantly in touch with him and had even sent her an insemination kit. She said she failed to conceive as she later learnt that she was suffering from hormonal issues. The woman alleged this development resulted in cruel, malicious and humiliating behaviour by her husband and in-laws. In 2015, the man initiated divorce proceedings.