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Rejecting a husband’s revision, the Allahabad HC holds that money is the only soothing legal balm for wife, she can’t be allowed to resign to destiny.
The Court held that “as any husband, the petitioner owes a legal debt to maintain any wife like the respondent”.
The Court held that considering the parties’ status, the father’s admitted income and the needs of the 2 school-going daughters, maintenance of ₹60,000 per month was just and reasonable.
The High Court held that the appellant failed to prove the alleged marriage under Section 7, Hindu Marriage Act, as neither the marriage nor the requisite ceremonies were established, and that voter-list entries and maintenance proceedings could not conclusively prove a valid matrimonial relationship.
A husband can’t simply delay a wife’s interim maintenance by alleging adultery, but if he proves it clearly, at the very outset, the law is equally clear: she isn’t entitled to a rupee, interim or final. The Supreme Court draws the line between the two.
The High Court held that the constitutional conscience of the Court favours the child’s right to identity over an alleged father’s concern for reputation. Social embarrassment of adults may yield where necessary; the rights of innocent children cannot be sacrificed merely to avoid discomfort.
Disclaimer: This has been reported after the availability of the order of the Court and not on media reports so as to
The Court stated that if the husband was bearing substantial expenses for the technical education of the major son, the same could not be a ground to restrict reasonable maintenance and educational support to the minor daughter.
“While deciding the main application under Section 144, Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, the Family Court should take into consideration the income and financial capacity of both parents and determine the amount of maintenance in a just and reasonable manner keeping in view the principle of shared parental responsibility and the welfare of the minor child.”
“The concept of moral obligation, howsoever compelling it may appear, cannot be enforced as a legal obligation in the absence of a statutory mandate.”
“Now the convenience of the wife/lady is not the paramount consideration for deciding the transfer applications and alternatives to transfer proceedings have been provided.”
“The capacity to earn and actual earning are distinct concepts, and as per settled law, mere capacity to earn cannot be a ground to deny maintenance. The real test is whether the wife is actually earning.”
“The Court is unable to accept the submission that mere employment or earning of the wife is, by itself, a ground to deny maintenance. The object of Section 125 CrPC is not merely to prevent destitution, but to ensure that the wife is able to live with dignity, consistent with the status of the husband.”
“She is entitled in law to lead a life in the similar manner as she would have lived in the house of her husband, as that is where the status and strata come into place, and that is where the obligations of the husband, in case of a wife, become prominent.”
“If a wife, by her own acts or omissions, causes or contributes to the incapacity of her husband to earn, she cannot be permitted to take advantage of such a situation and claim maintenance.”
“At the stage of consideration of interim maintenance, this Court is neither expected nor required to embark upon a detailed inquiry or conduct a mini trial to resolve such disputes conclusively.”
“The statutory right of the wife to maintenance cannot be permitted to be parted away and infringed by setting up a case that she had the capacity to earn.”
“To raise the presumption of a valid marriage for Section 125 of CrPC based on cohabitation, the couple must be qualified to marry and not be within the prohibited degrees of marriage.”
“The Family Court’s order directing husband to pay maintenance had already been challenged in the criminal revision proceedings, and therefore, allowing the present petition would permit the husband to adopt two parallel proceedings after electing one.”
“The mother has lawfully remarried, is now the mother of two children from her second marriage and has not interfered in the life of her former husband or his family.”