South actress Rambha moves court for legal custody of children
The actress contended that she suffered a lot in the hands of the family of her husband.
Mumbai: Yesteryear actor Rambha today moved a Family Court here seeking to declare and appoint her as a natural guardian of her minor children.
On October 25, she had moved a family court seeking its intervention to unite her estranged husband, who is now in Canada, with her under provisions of the Hindu Marriages Act.
The court had then posted the proceedings in the case for today. She had filed the petition under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriages Act, which paves the way for restitution of conjugal rights to the aggrieved partner.
According to Section 9 of the Act, when either the husband or wife withdraws from the other without reasonable excuse, the aggrieved person may go to court for restitution of his or her conjugal rights.
The actress had submitted that she would like to live with her husband Indran Pathmanathan, a Canada-based businessman, whom she married in April, 2010. The couple have two children and they have been living separately for some time now.
Rambha, whose original name was Vijayalakshmi, shot to fame with her movie 'Ullathai Allitha' (1996) in Tamil and she has acted in many films in several languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.
She submitted today that her husband was married to one Dushyanthi Selvavinayakam and it was dissolved by a decree of divorce with effect from December one, 2003, which was not disclosed by her husband at the time of marriage and she came to know about only later.
The actress contended that she suffered a lot in the hands of the family of her husband.
She was made to stay away from her children after a petition was filed by her husband in the Canada Court. After filing a petition in Superior Court, she got back the kids.
Indran had also filed an insolvency petition and it was declined by the Canadian Courts and later her husband and his family members apologised to her, following which a compromise between them was arrived at following which they again started living together.
However, later Indran deserted her and went to Canada, she submitted.
It is the legal and moral duty of the parents of the minor children to provide better education and medical facilities. But these were refused by her husband following which she filed the present plea seeking legal custody of the children.
As the Presiding Officer of the Family Court Sivadhanu was on leave, the matter was adjourned to Janury 21, 2017, for further hearing.