Legal Terrorism at its zenith

Mr. Gurpal Singh, a resident of Delhi, recently suffered a heavy personal loss in his life, with his father suffering from a heart attack. The reason the old man died an unnatural death was his daughter –in – law threatening to file cases based on false allegations of dowry harassment and related torture. His daughter-in-law had occupied his own house and thrown them out form their own home one year back and subsequently, his father and mother have to make rounds of the court/police to get back their own home, which failed till date. They even had to spend nights at "Gurudwara" in spite of his own home he made for his old time. Unable to bear the burden of a false allegation of a crime as grave as ‘Dowry Harassment’ and the associated stigma and social ostracization, Gurpal’s father succumbed to the pressure.

Every year 70, 000 cases of dowry harassment are filed and if the data compiled by Centre for Social Research is anything to go by, 98 % of such cases are false, void of merit and filed with an adverse motive of extortion, revenge and an intention of settling petty marital discords. In the last four years 95, 000 innocent women have been arrested solely on the base of allegations of dowry harassment, without any trial being ever conducted. When such a case comes to the police station or any so – called women’s organization, the first thing done is to take the whole family into the ambit of suspicion, without verification of the complaint, including small children and senior citizens, and pregnant sisters.

In case a woman dies within seven years of her marriage, the death is viewed with suspicions of dowry related harassment as a de – facto standard and the whole family of the in – laws are thrust into the prison and denied bail. Such fears have risen to such alarmingly high levels in the society that even the mention of such a threat to file a case can drive any person into deep wells of fear and uncertainty. Gurpal’s father also was going through the same mental phase and not being able to take the pressure, suffered from an emotional breakdown and a son lost his father in the most crucial period of his life.

It is highly disheartening to see the pathetic state men and their families are in currently in the society. Living constantly in a fear of false allegations being leveled against them and washing their lives in a whiff of a moment, some commit suicides, some give way to biological irregularities while more others are compelled to give in to unreasonable, unjustified and illogical demands in lieu of not filing a case. Is the value of a man’s life less than the value of a woman’s life, so much so that the society considers taking their lives as ‘Social Service’ and does not feel any need to take some steps to improve conditions. The daughter – in – law of Gurpal’s father is responsible for his sad demise, and charges of abetment of suicide need to be leveled against her and such a blatant misuse of laws deems punishment. Such acts fall no short of Legal Terrorism.

Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) an NGO committed to the cause of spreading awareness of this ongoing Legal Terrorism in the society and helping its victims, seeks to demand police intervention in Gurpal’s father’s sad demise and book the offenders for the crimes committed. A man’s life is not to be wasted like this making it a price of unleashing Legal Terrorism and such a loss needs to be compensated with timely justice. It would be absolutely mandatory to reiterate here that as per National Crime Records Bureau’s Data, every year close to 75, 000 men end their lives in suicide, more than double the number of women, yet men have no protection from the law. In addition to that they are subjected to wide and blatant false allegations and victimized under highly biased legal system plagued with lopsided laws.

Gender biased and draconian laws formed on the basis of highly bloated statistics are coming under high scathing as increasingly they are becoming tools to exercise unwarranted power and control. To add to it they have become legal channels of tax - free money extortion sponsored from tax payers’ hard earned money. SIFF condemns such laws and urges the government to take drastic and timely steps to avoid a social catastrophe turning a civilized society into a jungle of state sponsored Legal Terrorism snuffing lives out of innocent citizens in the dusky days.

Unfortunately if this had been the Father of a girl, all channel would had flashed the News, an old father ends his life for Dowry harassment and the husband's father/mother/sisters/child would havae been put behind the bars, but cases such as these always go un-reported, resulting in more and more elder people loosing their life silently, which it seems that not only the government authorities our media friends also believe to be considered as *"Social service of India" as the DIL killed the FIL.

`I am relieved' - Prashanth(Tamil Actor & Victim of IPC498a misuse)

Thursday May 29 2008 09:42 IST

Sharadha Narayanan

MARRIAGE is happiness to others, it's been a disaster to me," Prashanth candidly explained as he broke his silence and discussed the trauma surrounding his 3-year marriage with Grihalakshmi.Two days after the police has submitted its investigation to the Metropolitan Magistrate, Saidapet, that reports of harassment by Prashanth to his wife Grihalakshmi was a `mistake of fact', Prashanth seems a relieved man.

When a scribe asked him how he was doing, I'm fine, only now," he jubilantly said.Accusing Grihalakshmi of staging the wedding to cheat him, Prashanth calls himself the biggest victim of Section 498A, which deals with harassment by husband and his relatives and can lead to upto 3 years' imprisonment and fine."What hurts is that my son will be forced to grow in a broken house, which is why I filed a petition asking for his custody," Prashanth added.

Meanwhile, reading from the petition filed by Grihalakshmi against him, the actor said there were accusations that he forced her father to get him an LCD TV while in Malaysia. "Other things that I've supposed to have made them spend includes hair pruning equipment and hair dressing," he said, almost with a smile.

With this police report coming in his favour, things certainly seem to be looking up for the actor. When he was asked if he would accept her if she came back to him, the actor, in a non-committal way, stated that he had waited for too long for a positive response from her. The actor now has two cases that he has filed, pending: one in the matrimonial court seeking to declare the marriage null and void, and one in the criminal court accusing Grihalakshmi of cheating.

Meanwhile, things are also going in his favour in terms of his Kollywood commitments. The actor has six projects waiting to begin and he is awaiting the release of his Pulan Visaranai II this month. Three of his future projects will be under his home banner; one including the remake of his father's yesteryear hit Malaiyoor Mambattiyaan. One other project in the discussion stage is by new director Saroj. The Tamil actor who first got to act with Aishwarya Rai, Rinkie Khanna and many such heroines is eyeing Shriya for that project. "It's almost confirmed," he says.

Prashanth - Meets The Press - Video(Courtesy: Galatta.com)

Prashanth: False dowry harassment case dismissed

Padma Iyer [May 28, 2008, 1:19:02 PM] . Courtesy: http://tamil.galatta.com

Police investigation has revealed that the dowry harassment case filed by Gruhalakshmi on Prashanth is false. Gruhalakshmi and her family members plotted an extortion scheme to get a whopping amount of Rs. 50 crores from Prashanth. They even threatened to file Section 498 A case against him and his family if he failed to comply with their demand of the huge amount. After a detailed investigation, the police of dowry cell, Chennai, found her case baseless and false and dropped the case against Prashanth and his family.

My case is a classic example of how 498 A IPC is misused- Prashant

Actor breathes easy

On May 23, the Saidapet Court, acquitted actor Prashanth of all charges filed against him by his wife Grihalakshmi, who according to the police had misrepresented facts and accused him of dowry harassment case.

Breaking his three-year-long silence on the issue, Prashanth said, “My case is a classic example of how Section 498 A of the IPC, which protects women against dowry harassment has been misused (by my wife Grihalakshmi). The actor, who was accompanied by his lawyer P.Anand said, “Despite her giving false testimonies to the media and tarnishing my image, I never reacted against her as she was going to bear my child at that time. To my shock, she was already married to someone else. I sourced all documents to substantiate this and I did not go to the media. Instead, I resorted to the law in which I have immense faith.” When asked about his son, the actor said, “I want him back. I have filed a petition with regard to this and I am going to fight for him.”

Article in Sakal Times- FIGHTING SPIRIT - 56-year-old joins law school

To Fight cases to save men and families troubled by scheming wives
Mumbai:


While other men of his age eagerly anticipate the retirement years or enjoy the company of their families, Mohanlal Gupta (56) pores over piles of heavy law books. The former IITian is not studying to add to his skills, but out of a humane necessity to save men and families troubled by scheming wives.

“I am the oldest student in the Siddharth Law College, even older than the principal by 15 days,” laughs Gupta, who spearheads the Mumbai chapter of the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), which has been helping men who are at the receiving end of the deadly Section 498 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) since 2005.

However, Gupta’s merriment disappears when he explains, why he gave up his booming consultancy practice and took up studying law.

“My only son was, and continues to be a victim of the extortionist element ingrained in Section 498 (A),” he says. “His wife left him after just three months of marriage, then demanded monthly maintenance from him. We paid her for 15 months till my son finished his studies then he filed for divorce. When she realised that he would not meet any more demands, she alleged harassment,” he added. The Section 498 (A) deals with ‘husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty’. The case is still on at Mulund court, and Gupta vows that once his studies are over, he will fight his son’s case and put the woman behind bars.

“There are scores of men out there, all like my son, who have horrific tales to tell. When I heard their stories, I decided to fight such cases free of cost once I became a lawyer,” he says. The SIFF members in Mumbai are also part of the Protect Indian Family Foundation (PIFF), which operates three helplines in Mumbai.

There are over 5,000 active SIFF members in the country today, with over 175 in Mumbai.
“We are handling 100 new calls per month and will start more helplines to serve every needy person,” says Gupta.

Apart from PIFF taking a rally to Bandra Family court in June, the movement is set to hit TV screens as well. “We are registered with Indian Motion Pictures Association (IMPA) and are working on a tele-serial dealing with husbands’ harassment by misusing the laws,” Gupta says.
Gupta can be contacted on 09869323538 and another SIFF member, P R Gokul, on 09821414336. Nationwide helpline numbers are available on www.saveindianfamily.org.
EMAIL
bureaus@sakaaltimes.com
URL
http://www.saveindianfamily.org

Report in Indian Express- "In a legal Mess"

In a legal mess
Saturday May 10 2008 20:03 IST

CHENNAI

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call for the setting up of family courts in every district of the country has evoked mixed reactions in Tamil Nadu with some housewives urging the government to focus on the more important issues such as the steep hike in prices, on the one hand, and lawyers, on the other, terming the call timely and welcome.

“You allow more TASMAC shops, which are the root cause of marital discord and then you suggest more family courts be set up,” says Lakshmi, a middle-aged mother of two from Mylapore who faces torment at the hands of her husband, a regular drinker.

“Improve the functioning of the existing courts,” urges Gomathi of Royapuram, who visits the court in the city to get the maintenance her divorced husband is to give her.

There are six family courts in Tamil Nadu — three in Chennai, and one each in Madurai, Coimbatore and Salem. The government has agreed to establish more such courts in the state. The three courts in Chennai have the necessary infrastructure. There are separate rooms for counselling estranged couples. Two psychiatrics regularly visit the courts. There is also a children’s centre to look after the little ones while parents are in court.

Advocate Arul Mozhi says that the subordinate courts in the districts are already over-burdened with criminal and civil cases and the judges don’t have the time, temperament, patience, or expertise to deal with matrimonial cases.

“There is a feeling that family courts are set up to separate couples. It is not so. On the contrary, the courts will strive to unite them. Divorce is decreed in only exceptional cases, that too after exhausting all procedures such as counselling, mediation and psychological assistance. In cases of alcoholism, the person is referred to a de-addiction centre,” says Geetha Ramseshan, another advocate who deals with matrimonial cases.

“There are so many problems within a family and among spouses. The younger generation nowadays is quite different. The problems being faced by the IT professionals are unique. Therefore, each town needs a family court,” says Ramseshan.


T S Sekaran



CUTTACK


Sarojini Das has been making the rounds of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate’s court in Ganjam for the last three years. The 28-year-old has filed a suit seeking maintenance from her husband, who deserted her after five years of marriage. Date after date, the hapless woman who has a meagre source of livelihood and hopes for an order ensuring the payment of a monthly maintenance to her, goes to court but returns disappointed as the case is not heard or is posted for another date. The reason: a huge cause-list or non-appearance of her spouse.

Das is not the only one. Thousands of women, particularly from the lower class and the backward sections of our society are going through similar ordeals across courts in Orissa, because of the paucity of designated courts for adjudicating family cases. The number of these cases is only spiralling because of modernity-spurred marital discords coupled with rising levels of awareness on rights of relief.

Orissa, which has a population of more than four crore, has only two family courts, one in Cuttack and the other in Rourkela. The people in the other 25 districts have to bank on the courts of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate and judicial magistrate first class for maintenance cases and the civil judges for divorce and separation cases. As such, though all disputes relating to family matters are to be settled within one year, only a handful of cases have been decided within the constitutionally stipulated timeframe.

“The delay is inevitable. The trial courts have a back-bending backlog of cases. Thus, family cases, especially those relating to separation and maintenance, are pushed to the backburner,” explains a judicial officer. The non-appearance of the spouses on summons, as well as the inaction of police in executing warrants issued against them has also been a bane, the officer added.

At present, more than three lakh cases are pending in the lower judiciary with matrimonial cases accounting for at least 40,000 of them. The situation in the family courts in Cuttack and Rourkela is not much better. Several cases are pending in these courts, which are plagued by infrastructure deficiencies and shortage of staff.

The Cuttack court alone has a backlog of around 5,000 cases with an average of 1,800 cases being filed every. The court premises comprises one hall, half of which is used for court purposes and the other as office and chamber. Counselling, which forms the core of settling family matters, through mediation and reconciliation, is worst hit as there is no space nor atmosphere for vital personal interactions. The two counselors have to sit in non-conducive zones with litigants, who would not open up in public. Thus, reconciliation overtures are grossly affected and this leads to cases dragging on. Besides, around 325 warrants in maintenance cases have been issued between 2001 and 2008, but these have not been executed by the police.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been quick to announce the setting up family courts in seven districts within this year. If things move in the right direction, it would provide the much needed succour to suffering people.

(Names have been changed to honour the privacy of the litigants)

Bikram Nayak and SN Agragami



KARNATAKA

The need for external mechanisms to resolve family disputes is as much a reality in Karnataka as anywhere else. Unfortunately, there are only 15 family courts in the state and none in north Karnataka. This has forced people to head to the mediation centres , which have been set up as an alternate forum for dispute resolution.

Of the 5,834 cases filed in the family courts in the state since January 2007, 4,356 were referred to the mediation centres, which have a 70 per cent success rate for divorces and custody disputes, and an overall success rate of 53 per cent. In contrast, in family courts, people are forced to wait an entire day, not knowing when they would have to appear before an adjudicator — most of the time for an adjournment. This also translates into more money for lawyers.

The director of the mediation center, K N Keshavanarayana, points to the positive nature of intervention at the centres. Besides, disputes referred to mediation centers have to be resolved in 60 days. Buoyed by the success of these centres, 10 more have been planned in the districts, where the picture is dismal with some not having any family court.

Several disputes await resolution in Belgaum but there is only one family court. The backlog is inevitable — about 1,500 cases are pending and 100-120 are scheduled per day.

In Shimoga, the number of cases is steadily on the rise but are being dealt with the at the civil courts and the delays have caused disappointment. Till 2006-07 about 2,000 matrimonial cases, including 938 maintenance cases, were to be resolved. One example is that of Santosh and his wife, who have been waiting for two-and-a-half years to divorce. “If there was a family court, our case would have been concluded much earlier,” says Santhosh. A family court has finally been sanctioned in Shimoga district and is expected to start functioning after the vacations.

Even Mangalore does not have a family court. This results in a lot of frustration for the litigants one of whom points out that the chief judicial magistrate’s court first hears motor vehicle cases and then takes up those pertaining to conjugal rights and maintenance issues, as petty criminals, police personnel and sneering lawyers look on.

“Lawyers do not believe in protecting the institution of marriage and always skip conciliatory steps to directly file for divorce,” asserts the journalist. This eagerness to file cases, compounded by the dearth of family courts, only adds to the backlog.

(Nandini Chandrashekar in Bangalore, Harsha in Mangalore, Tushar A Manjukar in Belgaum and Ancy Johnson in Shimoga)



ANDHRA PRADESH


The record has been dismal. More than two decades after a central legislation was enacted for the creation of family courts, Andhra Pradesh has just four — one each in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam and Khammam. Between 2006 and now, orders were issued for the setting up of 18 more courts, but these are yet to come into being for a variety of reasons, including lack of infrastructure.

As a result, cases are still heard by regular courts in most cases and thus drag on for five or more years. Even in the family courts, cases drag on for more than two years as the presiding officers are overburdened — in Hyderabad, more than 1,000 cases are filed every year. Unable to handle the pressure, presiding officers have been outsourcing the cross-examination by appointing advocate commissioners, so that the judges themselves can devote time to reconciliation, which constitutes the core activity of a family court. To save time, arguments are also permitted only in writing.

The government order of March 28, 2006, sanctioned nine family courts — one each in Guntur, Karimnagar, Visakhapatnam, Eluru (West Godavari district), Anantapur, Rangareddy, Khammam, Kadapa and Vizianagaram. On January 17, 2008, it ordered the creation of courts in Hyderabad, Nellore, Prakasam, Adilabad, Srikakulam, Mahboobnagar, Nalgonda, Sangareddy (Medak district) and Rajahmundry (East Godavari district).

A senior official of the Andhra Pradesh High Court admits that the delay in setting up these courts has been causing inconvenience to litigants, but says, “The process is almost over and judges would be posted in all family courts by end of this month.”

Says advocate Vasudha Nagaraj, who was part of a team led by senior matrimonial lawyer Flavia Agnes that studied the functioning of family courts across the country in 2004, “It is true that a case is taking nearly two to three years to get disposed of, but regular courts take twice as much time. There are also some other good features about these courts — adjournments are not given easily, there is no court fee and the parties are made to appear regularly.”

The panel submitted its recommendations to all family court judges and district legal services authority.

For Andhra Pradesh, these include a separate room for access to children as orders are passed for the non-custodial parent to meet the child within the court premises, cells to provide basic information regarding court procedures, dates and status of the case; pre-litigation counselling centres so that a dispute can be amicably resolved, and appointment of lawyers only as amicus curiae and not in a commercial mode.

V L Srinivasan


KERALA


The very concept of marital law in India changed with the enactment of the Family Courts Act in 1984. Conciliation and peaceful settlement of family disputes became the key words. The family courts were also seen as a way of doing away with the protracted procedures of the civil courts and thus reduce the suffering of the litigants.

However, these institutions have not been totally successful. Kerala has 16 family courts — two each in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam and one each in the other 12 — but these have been unable to cope with the load. There were as many as 30,741 cases pending in these courts, many more than three years old.

One reason for this is the tremendous social change that has taken place in the state. The change in lifestyle caused by the inflow of NRI funds, the education and employment of women and their consequent economic independence, gender sensitization, the surge in nuclear families, consumerism, and increasing criminality have all affected the family set-up and led to a rise in the number of broken homes and divorce cases.

Some other issues also need to be addressed. The provisions of the civil or criminal procedure codes do not bar family courts from laying down their own procedures for the settlement of matrimonial disputes. The Act, with the aim of achieving reconciliation, also envisages the association of people engaged in social welfare in the resolution of disputes. However, family courts are often not conducive to reconciliation and “act as extensions of civil courts”, says advocate Lekha Suresh, who has been very active in the social sector.

The Act also provides for appointment of counsellors to assist family courts dispose of disputes. However, the number of cases is so large that it becomes difficult for counsellors to discharge their duties properly and they, thus, act mechanically.

A family court can also take the help of a medical expert or a person professionally engaged in promoting the welfare of the family. The state is supposed to pay the expert but more often than not the parties are forced to fork out the money. “How many people can afford this?” asks Lekha. The aim of setting up family courts is “to treat the root cause instead of treating the symptoms”, as a division bench of the Kerala High Court pointed out. However, even now the symptoms, and not the root causes, are being treated.

Scaria Meledam

Nymphotropism a boon or a bane?

Protect women, as they are the propagators of the clan, the age old line of thought reflects itself in the design of the oldest and hitherto most sacrosanct social institution called MARRIAGE which forms the basis of blissful life and the foundation of societal structures. And that is fairly acceptable too, if we delve deep into the factual synopsis leading to the concept of marriages. The institution of marriage was in actuality designed to provide protection to the female members of the social clan. Biologically females have reproductive power and this makes it important to the society to take care of the females by protecting them, even if they are criminals. Genetically males are designed to feel heroic saving a woman, and want to go out of the board in their bid to protect a female from another male. Welcome to the euphoria of Nymphotropism which has so far been very influential in the major events worldwide.

Nymphotropism, as we take its view as the conjugate equivalent of chauvinism, is quite a controversial phenomenon universally for expressiveness and emotional outcry being the formidable most and distinctive features of the female gender, cannot be merely ruled away as a manipulative tool nor be taken for granted at all instances to be genuine and true, though it enjoys a ubiquitous benefit of doubt ab initio. A woman’s tear does rattle the audiences’ heart for once and wicked women take advantage of this to fool a man into believing her alleged and described ordeals to be true. Well this may be disastrous as she could be conspiring against a man to settle her personal vendetta, by making two men fight over her. Her victim could be innocent as well who would be vandalized as the woman’s tears were believed to be true, courtesy, Nymphotropism. As we started with the thought of protecting women for they are the propagators of the clan, but then do not men need a protection and as this question certainly irks the rationale, it has a very straightforward answer as well, males being accorded the role of a Protector and the Provider in the society need to make provisions to protect themselves, for one who is not able to protect self, cannot protect others.

A man, who protects a woman, not only develops a self- feeling of greatness and overwhelming, but is also hailed by peers and superiors equally and so this adds another point to the ever spreading influence of Nymphotropism. Taking a cue from this, wicked men world over have always tried to portray their own brethren in bad light, by passing over their own misdeeds as traits of men, in general, and making the world believe that women need a lot of protection from men and this protection has to come from a man only. Sounds ironical but is unfortunately true as well. This practice mandated the formulation of laws needed to protect women. So we can see that it was Nymphotropism that led to the foundation of a societal and legal structure that accords a very fragile and victimized status to women and an oppressing view to men. While this helps wicked men and women get their way along, it’s the innocent ones (both men and women) who suffer because of this. Not only this there are many other unthought-of and non – analyzed fallouts and consequences of Nymphotropism which we shall see further.

Going by statistics we have close to 70, 000 cases of dowry harassment filed every year and about 8000 cases of Domestic Violence, 98 % of which are false and hence uncalled for in first place. And then these cases go on running for years together with little progress except for changing dates and applications and objections. Also each such matter involves close to 5-6 intertwined cases each having its own set of applications and objections. If we calculate the huge amount of paper base that is wasted for these false cases, all thanks to Nymphotropism, which facilitated the enactment of heavily lopsided laws, open to wide misuse void of any punishment for the same, the substantial contribution that goes to global warming because of this paper wastage is hard to imagine. And Nymphotropism is not an isolated phenomenon in India alone it exists world over and hence projecting the above paper wastage world over, it will be petrifying to imagine the amount of global warming that has attenuated. For paper is made from wood pulp and for that the forest cover is devoured thus leading to lesser and lesser rainfall and we have what almost every scientist on earth has been talking of, THE GLOBAL WARMING, though not solely caused as a side – effect of Nymphotropism, but has a substantial share attributed to it. And there is one more reason to this, the more such cases are filed, the more people require to travel, intra – city, inter – city, inter – country thus leading to increased fuel consumption and increased pollution and carbon emanation into the atmosphere.

Had it not been for Nymphotropism to believe everything that a woman says decorated with tears, even to the extent of ignoring and invalidating irrefutable evidence proving the alleged ordeals otherwise, we would not have had such a bad state of affairs, currently the institution of marriage and society is in. Men in the western countries have already started despising marriage and the average age of marriage has gone up drastically, men in India, have started developing distrust and a hidden fear regarding marriage. If, once for a while we assume that draconian marital laws are not misused, then also this sweet monster called Nymphotropism is disastrous to men married to wicked wives, as they will keep driving the nymphomaniac society towards these men, either for sadistic pleasure or realize their ulterior motives and objectives.

Nymphotropism breeds ignominy and distrust among males, as generally it is a man against another man due to an intervening female. And again it is due to Nymphotropism only that eunuch impressed sons get separated from parents and we are yet to hear a single instance of a son disowning his parents prior to his marriage, for otherwise, instances are galore and not far to seek.

The time has come wherein the society realizes about the perils Nymphotropism poses to the human race and comes out of the lethal euphoria before it is too late.

Two newspaper reports on Bigamy-Adultery legal position:Actor Pavan Kalyan Case

I have not married Pavan Kalyan: Counters Renu Desai (Courtsey The New Indian Express)
Wednesday July 4 2007 12:42 IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a curious twist to the tale, Renu Desai, who reportedly married actor Pavan Kalyan without the latter giving divorce to Nandini, stated in a reply to legal notices that she did not marry Pavan Kalyan at all.

Renu Desai’s reply came to light in the course of investigation on Tuesday and petitioner Nandini’s legal counsel is learnt to be exploring various options to make the actor depose before the judge.“It is a fact that the actress had responded to notices received by her on May 5, and has said in the counter that she did not marry Pavan Kalyan and she was implicated in the case without any involvement in the case,” Nandini’s advocate B Satyanarayana told this website’s newspaper.

Satyanarayana said Renu Desai had sent the reply on May 18 through her advocate in Hyderabad and it contained an address in Pune, suggesting that she was not with Pavan Kalyan.Much before the filing of a bigamy case by Nandini before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate recently, several notices were sent to Pavan Kalyan and Renu Desai to undo the injustice done to Nandini.It was after the defendants gave unsatisfactory replies that the bigamy case was filed before the metropolitan magistrate.

A dowry harassment case under Sec. 498(A) was filed subsequently against the entire family of Pavan Kalyan, including his actor brother Chiranjeevi.Claiming to be the wife of Pavan Kalyan, Nandini contended that he married Renu Desai without divorcing her and sought a monthly alimony of Rs 5 lakh.

2nd Report
Pavan Kalyan wants divorce (Courtsey Times of India)
8 Mar 2008, 0324 hrs IST,TNN

VISAKHAPATNAM: With Nandini refusing the divorce plea of actor Pavan Kalyan on Friday, the case took a curious turn with the family court postponing the matter to March 28 for further hearing.

When the magistrate tried to counsel the warring couple, the actor reportedly stuck to his ground that there was no question of reconciliation with his estranged wife and he had no plans to live with her. He further argued that he had moved ahead with his life and he could not share or start a new life with Nandini and demanded a divorce from her.

Nandini's lawyer tried to reason out with the judge that his client was willing to go back and stay with the actor in Hyderabad. However, Pavan ruled out any rapprochement in this regard. At this point, Nandini made it clear that she was averse to divorce. When the judge sought to know whether she wanted a reconciliation, she replied 'yes', while Pavan Kalyan said 'no'. With the efforts to bring them together having failed, the judge postponed the case to March 28.

Meanwhile, Nandini pleaded with the magistrate to grant her Rs 1.6 crore along with a monthly alimony of Rs 5 lakh in the bigamy case she filed against the Telugu film actor. The bigamy case was dismissed by the Visakhapatnam metropolitan magistrate court last month. After taking versions of Pavan and Nandini in the alimony case, the judge postponed the case to March 28 for further hearing.