A Deserter Wife is Not Entitled for Maintainance
- As per Section. 125 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, the term wife includes a married woman or a divorced woman who has not remarried.
- Section 125 (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 disentitles a wife living in adultery or who is living separated from her husband without any just reason or the husband and the wife are living separately by mutual consent.
- Section 125 (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, is a arbitrary provision that states that a wife refusing to live with the husband without reasonable cause is not entitled for maintenance and her application for maintenance will be rejected. However, once the husband is granted divorce on the ground of desertion by the wife, the divorced wife becomes entitled for claiming maintenance in accordance with the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in Dr. Swapan Kumar Banerjee vs. State of West Bengal.
- A woman has two rights to claim maintenance from her husband. Firstly, when she is married and does not suffer from any disability mentioned in Section 125 (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 i.e. any wife living in adultery or is living separated from her husband without any just reason or the husband and the wife are living separately by mutual consent. Secondly, a divorced women is entitled to claim maintenance from her past husband as a woman becomes destitute after divorce. If such a divorced woman cannot maintain herself and remain unmarried, then she is entitled to claim maintenance from the man she was married to in the past.
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