Picture used for representational purpose only

AHMEDABAD: Husbands beware! Cheating a wife by defaulting on alimony payment may cost you as much or more time in jail than cheats convicted under IPC 420 and those committing multi-crore frauds.

Lately, family courts have become especially harsh on husbands who refuse to pay their women despite court orders for maintenance. In past two years, family courts have sent defaulter husbands to jail for six, nine, eight and even 22 years.

To put things in perspective, cheating under IPC section 420 carries a maximum jail of seven years and three years for breach of trust under section 406 of IPC. Even for major fraud where accused is charged with cheating and breach of trust, maximum penalty is seven years in jail. Only in case of duping the government by forgery, the provision is life term.

In contrast, Mahesh Rajpura, a resident of Madhya Pradesh , was sent to 22 years in jail by Ahmedabad’s family court for not paying maintenance amount for 19 years. The amount totalled to Rs 7 lakh.

A month before this, Vatva-resident Aiyub Pathan was sentenced to nine years jail by a family court on complaint by his second wife that he had not been paying maintenance since 2010. She sought recovery of Rs 2.19 lakh arrears. The court ordered him to pay the amount. Upon failure, the court punished him with jail term.

Two weeks ago, Thasra town’s Captain Joseph alias Kanubhai Maharaj was ordered to serve 2,400 days in jail for his 6.5 year default in paying maintenance. He defied court order to pay Rs 2.86 lakh arrears.

In another case, one Dinesh Solanki was jailed for eight years. He is still behind bars.

‘Jail terms work as a deterrent’

Senior criminal lawyer, S V Raju, says husbands are sentences to harsher jail terms for not failing to pay alimony but also defying court orders. The advocate believes such jail terms are deterrent, but sentencing should be decided on case to case basis. “Some rich people who do not want to pay their wives are required to be punished to set an example. But sending a poor man who has no money to jail does not serve the purpose,” the senior advocate said.

Advocate Nilesh Bhavsar, who practices in the family courts, says courts should adopt a liberal approach. “Family court does not have an objective to send people to jail to make them live with hardened criminal. Social relationships get disturbed due to such approach. Families’ suffering only increases,” he said.

Two years ago, when the family court punished Ashok Makwana with 4-year jail, he vowed not to pay maintenance to his wife ever while going to prison. Dashrath Devda of an NGO - Patni Peedit Purush Sangh, which extended legal support to Makwana, said, “He told his mother that he would never pay his wife and that he would rather prefer dying in prison. We had to send money order to him twice in jail as he had no other income for support.”

