During the ongoing legal struggle, the Calcutta High Court ordered Indian cricketer Mohammad Shami to pay his wife and daughter Rs 4 lakh in maintenance. The previously agreed-upon value of Rs. 1.30 lakh, which was determined based on a district sessions court ruling in 2023, experienced a substantial increase in maintenance.
Shami's supporters expressed their sympathy on social media as soon as the news broke, arguing that the cricket player shouldn't have been made to pay such a large sum for maintenance.
However, the judge clarified the ruling, stating that the amount was determined by taking into account Shami's income, the future of his daughter, and the standard of living his former wife, Hasin Jahan, was leading before their split.
"The opposite party/husband's income, financial disclosure, and earnings established that he is in a position to pay a higher amount. The petitioner's wife, who has remained unmarried and is living independently with the child, is entitled to a level of maintenance that she enjoyed during her continuance of marriage and that reasonably secures her future as well as the future of the child," the bench said, as per Bar and Bench.
"Therefore, while it is true that the question of awarding an excessive amount of monetary relief does not arise, awarding a very low amount also cannot be accepted," the judge added.
Hasin Jahan also expressed gratitude to the court for deciding on Rs 4 lakh as maintenance, stating that the money will enable her to have their kid accepted into a better school, something that was previously impossible.
However, Jahan had first appealed for financial assistance, namely an interim payment of Rs 7 lakh per month for her and an extra Rs 3 lakh for her daughter.
Four years after their April 2014 marriage, Jahan filed a formal complaint against Shami and his family in March 2018 at the Jadavpur police station, claiming "sustained indifference and neglect" of her young daughter and "enormous physical and mental torture" under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (PWDV) Act, 2005.
In addition to domestic abuse, she claimed that Shami had stopped providing for her family's needs financially and had engaged in match-fixing and dowry harassment.
(PTI inputs)
