By
Rajesh Pandey
While observing that even if the husband has now become jobless, he would still be responsible for paying a sum for the maintenance of his wife being a skilled, qualified, and able-bodied person, the Allahabad High Court has set aside the family court’s order granting Rs 2,500/- as maintenance and directed the husband to pay Rs 10,000/- per month.
Allowing a criminal revision filed by one Shilpi Sharma, Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra observed that it is almost impossible for a woman who belongs to a middle-class family to have even a square meal from the paltry amount of Rs.2500/-
The husband had taken the plea that he was earlier working in Sahara India but at present he is unemployed.
The court in its judgment dated December 10 allowed the criminal revision filed by one Shilpi Sharma, who had challenged an order passed by a Family court under Section 125 criminal procedure code (CrPC), directing her husband- Rahul Sharma to grant her interim maintenance of Rs.2,500/- per month.
The wife had moved the high court, aggrieved by the quantum of interim maintenance awarded to her and payable by the respondent (husband).
It was her case that her husband earns a substantial income exceeding Rs. 4 lakh per month, and there are discrepancies in his claims that he earns only Rs. 12K as his expenses are far more than the claimed income.
Counsel for the husband argued that he had resigned from his job in 2016 and thereafter, his financial condition deteriorated substantially.
It was also submitted that his wife (revisionist) left her matrimonial home without any sufficient reason, never came back, and never attempted to restore her matrimonial relationship.
Lastly, it was contended that since she refused to live with the respondent without any sufficient reason, she is not entitled to maintenance by proviso (4) to Section 125 CrPC. The court, however, rejected this argument.
At the outset, the court noted that the husband’s conduct was objectionable, as he always avoided paying even a paltry sum of interim maintenance awarded in the impugned order regularly.
The court further noted that though the husband claimed himself as jobless at present, it appeared that he was concealing his present source of employment to avoid any enhancement in interim maintenance.