Court Grants Shikhar Dhawan Divorce, Cites Wife's Cruelty As Reason

A Delhi Court on October 4 granted divorce to cricketer Shikhar Dhawan on grounds of "cruelty" inflicted on the cricketer by his estranged wife Aesha Dhawan Mukherjee

Shikhar Dhawan married Aesha Mukherjee in 2012 and the couple share a 10-year-old son named Zoraver Dhawan. Both Aesha and Zoraver hold Australian citizenship. Aesha was previously married and has two daughters with her first husband.

After a long-due case of divorce filed by Shikhar Dhawan in 2021, his marriage was finally dissolved by the Delhi Family Court on the grounds of cruelty by Aesha Mukherjee. 

Here's everything we know about the divorce case. 

Case Details

Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan and his wife Ayesha Mukherjee got divorced on Wednesday, October 4, on grounds of mental cruelty by Ayesha. The divorce was granted by a Delhi family court, which accepted all the allegations made by Dhawan in his divorce petition.

Dhawan and Ayesha got married in October 2012 and have a ten-year-old son named Zoravar. However, the couple separated in 2019 and Dhawan filed for divorce in 2021.

Harish Kumar, the Family Court Judge accepted Dhawan's accusations against his wife after Mukherjee was unable to prove the allegations as false. The judge observed Mukherjee had subjected Dhawan to mental cruelty forcing him to be in a long-distance relationship and keeping him away from his son for years. 

Dhawan in his divorce petition alleged that Mukherjee had promised him to move to India. The cricketer was unable to make the same move to Australia due to his career commitments. However, Dhawan claimed Mukherjee soon after backtracked from the mutual promise as it would require her to give up the custody of her two daughters from her ex-husband.

Dhawan in his petition also claimed that Mukherjee had made false allegations against him and his family as he claimed Mukherjee soon after marriage threatened him to fabricate false derogatory accusations against him affecting his and his family's reputation as well as affecting his career if he did not comply with her demands. 

The petition also alleged that Mukherjee forced Dhawan to give her ownership of the three properties the cricketer bought in Australia. The petition claimed that Mukherjee owned 99% of ownership of one of the properties and was a joint owner in the other two. 

Mukherjee was unable to prove that she did not compel Dhawan for the ownership of his properties and it was either out of love and affection or she made a financial contribution to acclaim the ownership. Hence, the court had to believe Dhawan's allegations as true. 

The court also accepted allegations against Mukherjee that she forced Dhawan to pay child support not just for their son but also for her two daughters which she already was receiving from her first husband as well. 

Ayesha did not contest the allegations made by Dhawan in her divorce petition. As a result, the court granted Dhawan a divorce on grounds of mental cruelty.

The court refused to pass any order on the permanent custody of Zoravar but granted Dhawan visitation rights to meet his son for an appropriate duration in India and Australia. The court also ordered Ayesha to bring their son to India for visitation purposes during his holidays following his academic schedule and granted unsupervised overnight stays of Zoraver to Dhawan and his family.

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