MUMBAI: Caught in a duel in a court of law, tennis ace Leander Paes has returned a sharp service from Rhea Pillai by calling her interim maintenance demand of Rs 1 crore “misconceived“ and “not maintainable“.

Pillai made a plea on September 1 for “compensation towards damages caused by way of domestic violence". She said her relationship with Paes was “akin to marriage“ and hence she was “equally entitled to the shared household". She said she had “moved in with Paes in 2008 with their minor child and had every right to reside there“. The next hearing in the case is September 18.

Pillai in her interim plea had first mentioned Rs 10 lakh as compensation sought, but a few days later corrected her lawyer's “inadvertent error“ by restating the amount as Rs 1 crore.

Pillai had sought Rs 1 crore also in her main complaint of domestic violence against Paes, filed in 2014. In it her other demands included Rs 3 lakh in monthly maintenance, restraining Paes from “alienating the shared household" and allowing her to reside in Paes's Bandra flat.

Paes filed a reply to her interim plea on September 12, in which he said she had “filed with intentions to delay the trial which was directed by the apex court--on July 18--to be completed expeditiously , within six months". He said the “very maintainability" of Pillai's plea under the Domestic Violence Act is under challenge on the ground that the relationship was not akin to marriage. Denying all her allegations, he said in his reply that her interim plea for damages cannot be entertained till the very maintainability of her main 2014 case was first decided by the Bandra magistrate.

Pillai's interim plea mentioned that “as per various websites, Paes had an estimated net worth of $8.5 million“ and he “made close to Rs 30 crore in prize money in the course of his glittering career". Her interim plea also lists electricity bills from February 2009 to July 2014 worth Rs 10 lakh, vegetable bills between 2009 and 2014 of over Rs 1 lakh, and travel expenses of Rs 7 lakh. She has also sought that Paes be directed to “purchase any comfortable car" and has mentioned certain brands as examples, and wants Paes to return Rs 8.8 lakh that he borrowed from her “as a loan“. Besides these, she has mentioned Rs 17 lakh in “household expenses", 50% incurred by her.

