Saving A Marriage: Odisha Court Asks Warring Newlyweds to Spend Another Week Together

0
232

[google-translator]

A young woman’s dramatic picketing for ten days outside the house of the man she accused of refusing to accept her as his married wife is showing signs of bearing fruit with judicial intervention. With a local court at Berhampur in Odisha’s Ganjam district asking her and the man to spend another week together to try reconciliation, her lawyers and social activists supporting her demand are hopeful that the marriage will work.

The public saga of Tapaswini Dash trying hard to save her marriage with Dr Sumit Kumar Sahu has riveted attention across Odisha for over a fortnight. On November 22, Dash, 26, came dressed as a bride and sat just outside the house of Dr Sahu at Berhampur’s Brahmanagar locality demanding to be allowed to live in the house with him. With Dr Sahu’s family refusing, she sat there, holding photographs showing her together with him, for the next ten days. She slept there in the nights, too, out on the road, with makeshift arrangements for a mosquito net done by some social activists accompanying her.

Tapaswini Dash and Dr Sumit Kumar Sahu

The 26-year-old woman said she and Dr Sumit Kumar Sahu, a medical doctor aged 30, had been in love and married at a court on September 7, 2020. “We lived together as a married couple in a rented house for the next seven months. Then he said his father has high connections and was threatening him of murder. So, he returned home and promised me that he would take me home after a social wedding with Hindu rituals. But since then both he and his family have been refusing to acknowledge me,” Dash, the daughter of a retired police constable at nearby Chhatrapur, told reporters during her protest.

“What do they (Dr Sahu’s family) want? They got my child killed. They stopped my education and ruined my reputation. I want to be allowed to live with my husband in his house. I will sit here till the day that happens,” she said. She did not budge from outside the three-storey house even as Dr Sahu’s family kept ignoring her presence and local police tried to persuade her to leave.

Both Dash and Dr Sahu belong to the Brahmin caste. Dr Sahu, son of a wealthy businessman, got his MBBS degree from MKCG Medical College and Hospital at Berhampur. Dash, a science graduate, quit her studies in homeopathy after her father met with an accident and took voluntary retirement, said her lawyer Pradeep Kumar Behera.

Even though Dr Sahu and his family have refrained from speaking to the media, Dash’s lawyers said Dr Sahu had filed a divorce petition some time ago and that it was pending at the Berhampur family court. In the petition, Dr Sahu has reportedly accused Dash of mistreating her in-laws during a two-month stay at their family home.

With Dash’s dramatic protest in bridal attire making daily news on television, a local court took up for hearing a domestic violence case she had lodged against Dr Sahu and his family. On December 2, the Berhampur sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) asked the warring couple to live together for a week at the guest house of a sugar mill at Aska in Ganjam district, near where Dr Sahu is posted as a doctor at a government primary health centre (PHC). The court asked the local police to facilitate their secure stay there and barred any third person from contacting them.

The court also asked a police officer to submit a report on the couple’s togetherness at the end of the week. The court’s move was hailed by social activists across Odisha as a thoughtful and right step towards reconciliation between Dash and Dr Sahu.

On December 9, the report submitted to judge Jitendiya Panigrahi in a sealed envelope. This time, the judge asked the couple to live together for another week and a report be presented to him at the end of the week.

“The SDJM ordered that they would live together at a rented house and that the husband would pay for it and other requirements during the time. The court has now lifted the restriction on other people coming to meet the couple. We sense that there is positive development in relations between the couple, which prompted the court’s directions,” said Dash’s lawyer Pradeep Kumar Behera.

Pramila Tripathi, a social worker who accompanied Dash during her ten days of picketing said, “It is her (Tapaswini Dash) determination to save her marriage that is bearing fruit. I thank the court for ordering them to stay together for another week. This will help them iron out whatever bitterness was between them.”

When Tapswini Dash and Dr Sumit Kumar Sahu were present at court along with their family members on December 2, judge Jitendiya Panigrahi had counselled the couple for over two hours, said a lawyer. “The SDJM had told them of the value of marital bliss in human life, citing instances from his own marriage of six years and also quotations from the Bhagavat Gita. The judge is trying as hard to save this marriage from disintegrating,” the lawyer said.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.

Source link

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here