The Goyal v Goyal case in the Family Division involves a long-running divorce battle between Amit and Ankita Goyal and strikes a blow at attempts by divorcing spouses to trying to conceal their assets overseas.
"There are powerful reasons for making a supplementary periodical payments order in favour of the wife," Justice Mostyn said in his ruling, published last month.
Under his order, the wife will receive new periodical payments of around 5,200 pounds per annum, which add up to 100 pounds per week.
The law in Britain provides that a pension may be divided between divorcing spouses by means of a pension sharing order pursuant to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. However, a previous judgment of the Court of Appeal in this case had decided that pension sharing pursuant to Section 24B did not apply to foreign pensions.
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However, the latest ruling decided that it was open to the court to order the UK-based husband to make payments from the annuity to the wife as maintenance payments.
"This is a landmark judgment in a long running financial remedy case which relates to a foreign pension which the husband had transferred out of the UK to India. The husband claimed he had transferred his pension annuity to a friend to satisfy a debt. The court disbelieved this claim and concluded that the story about the friend owning the annuity was a bare-faced lie," said Zaiwalla & Co. Solicitors, the law firm which represented the wife on a pro bono basis.
"I hope that the husband will accept this judgment and will now desist from further pointless litigation in these proceedings. I note that he will however resist the suit brought against him by the wife's family in India...I know nothing about this case but only express regret that it appears likely that these parties will remain locked in litigious battle in India for years to come," Justice Mostyn said.
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