Representative image

AHMEDABAD: A family court in the city punished a man with nine-year imprisonment on Friday, for not paying maintenance to his wife, who he deserted, for nine years after court orders.

Aiyub Pathan , a resident of Vatva, was sentenced to imprisonment after he didn’t bother responding to the court and refused to obey court orders. Family court judge M J Parikh directed the city police commissioner to ensure the arrest warrant is served on Pathan. This came after the woman’s advocates submitted that none of the summons and warrants issued against him were ever served by Vatva police.

Pathan married a woman form the Bombay Hotel area in 2006 after divorcing his first wife. They lived together for a brief period, but Pathan allegedly started living with his first wife, without remarrying her. This brought his second wife to the family court seeking maintenance. The court ordered the man to pay Rs 2,500 as monthly maintenance in 2010, from the date she had filed the application, about a year earlier.

Pathan continued to ignore the court order and because of continuous default, the arrears continued to rise. His wife filed three applications through her advocate Asif Shaikh for recovery from her husband. Pathan never responded to the court’s notices and summons.

During a hearing on Friday, when the court saw that the arrears had risen to Rs 2.19 lakh and Pathan had not paid anything for nine years, it decided to impose a punishment of one month imprisonment for each month of default.

