On Wednesday, October 4, a Delhi court granted divorce to Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan from his estranged wife Aesha Mukerji ending eight years of their marriage. While approving the divorce of the Indian batsman, the Family Court in the Patiala House complex in Delhi, noted that Shikhar Dhawan’s wife had caused “mental agony” to the cricketer by forcing him to live separately from his only son for years.
Dhawan had tied the knot with Mukerji in 2012 and had a son with her named Zoravar. Mukerji was earlier married to an Australian businessman and has two daughters from the first marriage.
Judge Harish Kumar accepted Dhawan’s charges against his wife in the divorce petition. The court stated in its decision that Dhawan’s wife either did not contest the foregoing charges or did not defend herself.
“Hence, it stands proved that the wife backtracked from her assurance of setting up a matrimonial home in India after marriage and thus made him suffer a long distance marriage and suffer immense agony and anguish of living separately from his own son for years,” the judge observed since Dhawan’s testimony remained unchallenged.
Though the court refused to pass any order on permanent custody of the couple’s son, the judge granted mandatory visitation rights to Dhawan to meet his son for an appropriate duration in India and Australia. Dhawan was also allowed to chat with his son over video call.
Observations made by the court while granting Indian Cricketer Shikhar Dhawan divorce from his estranged wife Aesha Mukerji:
Dhawan for no fault of his own had been through immense agony and anguish: In his plea, Dhawan said that Aesha Mukerji had consented to live with him in India at the time of their marriage, but later declined since she was committed to her ex-husband and their two girls in Australia. She took their son with her, leaving Dhawan in India alone.
“He (Dhawan) for no fault of his own had been through immense agony and anguish of living separately from his own son for years. Even though the wife denied the allegation, submitting that she genuinely wanted to live in India with him, however, due to her commitment towards her daughters from her previous marriage requiring her to stay in Australia, she could not come to live in India and that he was well aware of her commitment, yet she did not choose to contest the claim,” the judge observed in the order.
Court accepts Dhawan’s allegation that he was compelled to make her co-owner of three properties that he had bought in Australia: In his petition, Dhawan alleged that his estranged wife demanded and acquired ownership of 99 per cent of Dhawan’s three Australian properties, along with joint ownership of two others, all of which he had purchased with his money.
The court accepted the allegation as Aesha did not contest it. According to the court, Aesha was unable to prove that she did not coerce Dhawan to make her an owner of the houses and that she also contributed funds to facilitate the acquisition of the same.
“The respondent was required to prove that properties were purchased out of her fund as well or her name was included out of love and affection. Thus, Dhawan’s allegation that she compelled him to make her owner to some extent in all three properties or that she pocketed sale proceeds thereof has got to be believed as true,” the court added.
Court accepts Aeysha compelled Dhawan to pay for her daughters from her previous marriage: The court also accepted Dhawan’s allegations that Aesha forced him to pay child support not only for their son Zoravar but also for her two daughters, for whom she had got child support from her first husband.
Recognizing Dhawan’s standing as a prominent international cricketer, the court asked him to approach the Union government for help in resolving visitation or custody issues with his son, particularly those involving his counterpart in Australia.
“Since petitioner is a reputed International Cricketer and has been a pride of the nation, subject to petitioner approaching the Union Government of India, it is requested to take up the issue of visitation/custody of the minor son with its counterpart in Australia to help him have regular visitation or chatting with his own son or his permanent custody,” the court observed.
The court ordered Mukerji to facilitate the child’s visits to India, including overnight stays with Dhawan and his family, during at least half of the school vacation periods within the academic calendar.
It may be noted that the couple had separated from each other in September 2021. The news of the batsman’s divorce had come as a shocker to his fans as the couple was very popular, often cited on social media as “couple goals”. The couple had then taken to their respective social media accounts to share several posts about their divorce.