Divorce — Cruelty & Permanent Alimony · 8 September 2026
Karnataka High Court Grants Actor 'Duniya Vijay' Divorce, Orders ₹2 Crore Permanent Alimony, Criticises His Conduct
High Court of Karnataka · 2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 341
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Kannada actor B.R. Vijay Kumar ('Duniya Vijay') sought divorce from his wife, Nagarathna, on grounds of cruelty. The wife alleged, among other things, that he had five wives in total; the Court found this specific allegation unsubstantiated for lack of any supporting material, and treated her repeated, unproven public claims to that effect as amounting to mental cruelty. On that basis it dissolved the marriage.
At the same time, the Division Bench was explicit that it was not condoning the husband's own conduct, describing his behaviour with another woman as 'deplorable' and holding — invoking Section 23(1) of the Hindu Marriage Act, which bars a party from benefiting from their own wrong — that a husband who projects a third person into the place of a wife cannot then claim he was deserted without his consent. The Court also found the wife had made the matrimonial home an intolerable environment for the husband's parents. Weighing both sides, it ordered the husband to pay ₹2 crore as one-time permanent alimony, citing the need to secure the financial future of the wife and the couple's three children and to bring finality to the litigation. The judgment expressly stated it was not written 'in celebration of the husband's conduct but in spite of it.'
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