Man attempts suicide, protesting HC order on alimony

A disabled man tried to kill himself, being unhappy that the court asked him to pay an alimony to his estranged wife and financial help to his two offsprings, amounting to Rs 22,500 per month.

A 42-year-old disabled man from South Chittoor in Cheranalloor near Kochi, Kerala was unhappy with the High Court’s verdict delivered on Wednesday. Reacting to the verdict, he planned to jump from the staircase banister of the High Court’s top floor, in an attempt to kill himself.

A police officer at the court complex, who had seen the man sitting on a banister suspected that the man would jump, rushed up to him and pulled him, foiling his attempt. Other cops and lawyers there helped the officer in controlling the man and bringing him down to the elevator. The man was later handed over to Ernakulam Central police station.

Initially, the man was ordered by the family court to pay his wife Rs 10,000 per month along with Rs 7,500 and Rs 5,000 for the elder child, 12, and younger child, 13 respectively, after the divorce.

Raged by this, the man then approached the High court, where the Bench agreed to a slight reduction in the amount by Rs 2,500 and ordered him to pay Rs 7,000 monthly alimony and Rs 6,500 to each of his children, which was summed up to Rs 20,000 per month instead of Rs 22,500 that was ordered earlier by the family court.

Having met with a motorcycle accident in 2008, the man became disabled from a thighbone fracture and so he contended that since then he has not been able to earn good, given his disability.

On this, the family court said that a disabled person has to pay maintenance unless he is completely incapable of earning, also mentioning that the man got married and had two children, a year after his accident. In addition, the court rejected a document stating that he is employed as a temporary driver drawing a salary of Rs 10,500 at a school in Perumanoor since 1990.