Bobby Darling

MUMBAI: In a unique case, a film and television artiste married as a woman following a sex reassignment surgery (SRS) has filed for divorce in Mumbai on grounds of cruelty but the husband has questioned the very validity of the wedding under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA).

Bobby Darling, born Pankaj Sharma , has sought dissolution of her marriage and also cancellation of an October 2016 gift deed of a flat in Oshiwara and Rs 2 crore in alimony before the family court at Bandra .

Last September, the family court ordered that status quo be maintained as far as the properties were concerned.

The case is set to revolve around how a ‘woman’ is interpreted by courts and whether a ‘woman’ under the HMA means a girl at birth, that is, biologically by birth.

Married life ‘faker than the movies’, says Bobby Darling

The divorce petition filed through lawyer Bhavana Jadhav says that both are Hindu and that the petitioner—then a transgender known as Bobby Darling—underwent an SRS in November 2015 to become Pakhi Sharma, before marrying in February 2016 in Bhopal, in a Hindu ceremony.

The plea is also for ownership declaration of a Bhopal property, on the grounds that it was allegedly purchased with her “hard earned money but in joint names under pressure, misrepresentation’’ during an “abusive’’ marriage, alleging the gift deed was executed under “coercion’’. As petitioner, Pakhi Sharma has relied on official documents that identify her as a woman since the surgery. Her married life had become “faker than movies as the outside world believed her to be happy (and she was made to pretend the same) while internally she felt a sense of nothingness,’’ she has alleged.

Her husband, through lawyers G J Ramchandani and Hitesh Ramchandani, has in a reply claimed that the marriage itself is “void’’ under the Hindu Marriage Act. “In the entire Domestic Violence Act, HMA, IPC or other laws, nowhere has it been presumed that if a male gender gets his genitals changed then he would be treated as woman.’’ The HMA recognizes a marriage to be valid only between a man and woman, is his contention. After staying together for a couple of months, the petitioner filed a criminal case against her husband in Delhi.

“In the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, the word ‘marriage’ is nowhere defined but Section 5 (iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 mentions that the marriage should be between the bridegroom and the bride. The bridegroom means a male, who is by birth a male and the bride means a female who is by birth a female. In the present case the petitioner was not a female by birth.’’ The actor has also sought a temporary injunction praying that no third party interest be created on the properties. The interim relief application for temporary injunction is pending the final hearing.



In Video: Bobby Darling files for divorce, husband questions validity of wedding