Latest Judgement

The husband is usually under three types of misconceptions regarding payment of interim maintenance: –

1. The wife’s father is rich and she therefore does not have right to claim maintenance from the husband. Even if wife’s father is rich, he is not liable to maintain his married daughter. The wife does not have any right to claim maintenance from her father, as she has right to claim maintenance only from her husband. As per Indian law even a beggar is supposed to maintain his wife, children and old parents unable to maintain themselves. The husband has to pay maintenance to the wife even if her father is rich.
2. The husband claims that he does not have any money or property as he has transferred all his assets/money to his parents and he has nothing. Under above circumstances, the court looks into the husbands last three years income tax returns and bank statements.
   1. The husband is liable to pay arrears of maintenance to the wife and children from the date of filing of maintenance application.
   2. To avoid payment of arrears of maintenance or reduction of maintenance or revoking the maintenance order, the husband has option of filing an appeal in the higher court against the maintenance order passed by the lower court & obtain stay on the order maintenance order.
   3. To avoid payment of maintenance the husband may claim that he does not have money to pay arrears of maintenance or future maintenance. The court must be convinced with evidence that the husband is genuinely facing financial difficulty and he is therefore not paying the maintenance, if convinced about the husbands financial difficulties, the court may adopt lenient approach towards the husband and give him reasonable opportunity to pay arrears and present of maintenance in instalments.
   4. Sometimes the husband may arrogantly think/say, what can the courts do? If the judge is convinced that the husband is intentionally not paying arrears of maintenance even after having financial capability, then the court may send the husband to prison till he pays major part of the maintenance.
   5. At times the husband cunningly pays arrears of maintenance in small instalments, that too when the judge is about to send him behind bars. In such cases wife is at the mercy of the court for recovery of arrears of maintenance. Strict judges recover the arrears in short span and the husband remains under constant pressure to pay maintenance on time or face prison term.
3. Many times, husbands say that the wife has a boyfriend and he is not liable to pay maintenance. The courts observe that the husband has to pay maintenance even if the wife had extramarital affair in the past. The wife has to be living in adultery, for the court to refuse maintenance to the wife. The court may refuse to order payment of maintenance to the wife if she is not living with the husband without any reasonable cause.

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