Court grants Pune couple divorce via Skype

A couple from Pune was granted divorce via Skype on Monday as the husband was working in the US and unable to fly down to India. A Pune-based techie, 32, had an arranged married with his wife, 30, in July, 2013. Sometime later, the man started suffering from TB, and his wife, a call centre employee, left him. The techie, meanwhile, was completely cured of TB in a year, and requested the woman to come back to him but she refused.

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Based on this, the man, via his lawyers J P Barmeda and Sheetal Bhutada, moved a divorce petition before the Pune court on March 14, 2014 citing mental torture and desertion. Later, unable to bear the failure of his marriage, the man moved to the US.

Later, the woman, via her lawyer Anil Tejwani also moved a petition pleading for maintenance and other damages from the man but because of the long-delayed in case proceedings, she, too, decided to move a mutual consent divorce petition. As the husband was unable to come to court for the hearings, an arrangement was made to have the court proceedings via Skype. Joint civil judge Deepali Kaduskar observed, "Both moved a mutual consent divorce and the wife is ready to waive off her maintenance." This is the second time that a divorce has been granted via Skype. The earlier one, in March this year, was also granted by Judge Kaduskar.