Pune: Court Protects Wife’s Right to Shelter; Orders Husband To Resume Home Loan Payments In Family Dispute Case

Pune, 1st April 2025: In a significant ruling on a family dispute involving domestic violence, the court has ordered a husband to continue paying the home loan installments even if the couple is living separately. The court also emphasized that the wife cannot be made homeless and the responsibility of maintaining her should fall on the husband.

The decision was made by First-Class Judicial Magistrate Amol Shinde, who stated that despite the couple living apart due to personal differences, the husband must fulfill his financial responsibility regarding the home loan. “The wife cannot be left without a home, and the husband is obligated to ensure her housing needs are met,” the court said. The ruling further mandated that the husband must pay the overdue installments and continue paying the loan regularly moving forward.

The case involved a couple working as computer engineers in the IT sector. After their marriage, they decided to purchase a home with the husband agreeing to take on the responsibility of paying the home loan installments. Initially, the husband paid the installments regularly. However, after disagreements arose between the couple, the husband left the house and stopped paying the loan. The bank subsequently issued a notice for the missed payments. Unable to pay the installments, the wife approached the court through her lawyers, Advocates Pratik Date and Dhananjay Joshi, seeking justice.

Advocates Date and Joshi argued that due to the wife’s lower income compared to her husband, it was impossible for her to bear the burden of the home loan installments. They further stated that she was at risk of becoming homeless, and thus, she had a legal right to housing under the Domestic Violence Act. Referring to the judgment in the case of Santosh Naik vs. Saubhagya (Kerala), they made a strong case for the wife’s right to stay in the home.

The court accepted the argument and ordered that even though the wife is no longer living in the house, it is Ashutosh’s responsibility to continue paying the installments. The ruling reaffirmed the wife’s right to stay in the property and placed the financial burden of the loan squarely on the husband.