Calcutta High Court: Biswajit Basu, J. dismissed a revision application of the filed by a lady seeking alimony pendente lite.
The husband/respondent and the wife herein had filed a matrimonial suit seeking dissolution of their marriage by a decree of divorce, inter alia, on the grounds of cruelty. In the said suit, the wife had filed an application before the learned trial judge under Section 36 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 praying alimony pendente lite at the rate of Rs 50,000 per month. The wife alleged that the husband is working in a reputed organization in the USA and was earning around Rs 75,00,000 per annum. Thus, she was entitled to maintenance proportionate to the income of the husband. However, after assessing her salary certificates for December 2018, January 2019 and March 2019, the learned judge opined that the present income of the wife is not less than Rs 74000 being sufficient for her support particularly when she herself assessed her requirement at Rs 50,000 in the application for alimony pendente lite. And as Section 36 provides for temporary financial support pending any action under Chapter V or VI of the said Act “to the wife who has no independent income sufficient to maintain herself”, refused the prayer of the wife for alimony pendente lite.
The High Court dismissed the case, holding the decision of the learned trial Judge as absolutely justified.[Somdatta Chatterjee nee Raychaudhari v. Anindya Chatterjee, 2019 SCC OnLine Cal 1627, decided on 11-06-2019]
