But the gutsy girl from Shahapur in Gulbarga district refused to buckle. For seven years, she fought a brave legal battle that stretched into the High Court, and won finally.
Married at 13, Sunitha, along with her child, was abandoned by her husband even before she crossed teenage. It took several years for her to prove her marital status as child marriage is prohibited legally, but practised rampantly. She could seek divorce and get alimony only if she could prove her marital status.
Sunita was married to Bhimaraya Naykodi of Vibhootihalli on June 24, 1999, when both were still students at a government school. After two years, Sunita bore a daughter, Padmavati. Bhimaraya deserted Sunita in 2004. Sunita approached the JMFC court seeking alimony and a share in the property for her daughter. In her petition, she sought the court not to allow Bhimaraya to marry a second time so long as he was married to her.
However, the court dismissed her petition stating that as she was a minor at the time of wedding, the marriage had no legal sanctity and she was not entitled to the alimony and the property.
Sunita then moved the Civil Court seeking restitution of her conjugal rights, but failed because traditions and rituals of wedding were not enough to prove her point in the court. Her application was rejected for want of evidence.
Undeterred by the verdicts of the lower courts, Sunita approached the High Court Circuit Bench in Gulbarga in 2008.
Bhimaraya contended that Sunita wasn’t his wife legally as their marriage, conducted in their childhood, was illegal. He also argued that Padmavathi was not his daughter.
Hearing the case, the Divisional Bench comprising Justice K L Manjunath and B Manohar directed the lower court that she be given a due share in the property and alimony as she had reached the age of 18.
Hearing her appeal against the Civil Court order on the restitution of her conjugal rights, the Bench observed: “The child can’t be denied a share in the property. If the husband argued that child marriage was illegal and rejected the claim over the child born to them, Bheemaraya can be booked on the charges of raping a minor.”