Two sisters from ludhiana have moved a Delhi court seeking maintenance of over Rs 4 crore per year from their father to pursue studies and meet daily expenses.
They have alleged that they flee from their home in 2010 following physical and mental torture by their father. The girls complained with the Metropolitan Magistrate alleging that they were subjected to all kinds of abuse when they were residing with their parents.
The younger sister, preparing for civil services examination, told the judge that they are students and they have no source of income to maintain themselves. “The petitioners (the two sisters) are unable to maintain themselves as they have no source of income and they do not possess any movable and immovable properties in their names and respondent no.1 (father) is duty bound to maintain his daughters who are students,” said their advocate Shaan Mohan.
“The respondent (father) intentionally, willfully and deliberately neglected to maintain the sisters and he has caused domestic violence against the complainants. The girls have even been subjected to sexual abuse by their father’s friends,” added Mohan.
The counsel also said the parents should be prohibited from committing any act of domestic violence. “The girl’s father should be stopped from repeating any acts of physical and mental abuse, threatening, lodging false cases or sending friends to threaten them and their friends,” Mohan said, while requesting the court to issue direction to the SHO of the police station concerned to give protection to the girls.
“There is great urgency because of threats being extended to petitioners to eliminate them in the name of honour killing,” Mohan said.
The court has issued notice to the father seeking his response by January next year. In their plea, the girls told the court that the trouble began when the elder sister, a final year B.Com student, told her father, a shopkeeper, that she wanted to pursue MBA but their father threatened to withdraw both of them from college. The counsel said, “Faced with the prospect of being put under house arrest, the girls ran away to Delhi with a family friend in February 2010 and joined a Delhi college to complete their studies.” The girls are currently staying with some friends.
“In these facts and circumstances, this court may direct the respondents to pay the aggrieved (the two sisters) a sum of Rs 2 crore each,” the counsel said.
The lawyer said that an order should be passed in favour of the sisters, directing the respondents to hand over personal belongings of the petitioners.Earlier, the Delhi High Court had provided them with police protection after they alleged that the family friends have “attacked” them.