BENGALURU
The Karnataka High Court has directed a BHEL employee to pay ₹15,000 per month as maintenance to his wife, setting aside a family court order that had earlier rejected her claim.
Justice K. Manmadha Rao, while allowing the woman’s petition, ruled that the maintenance would be payable from March 2016—the date of application—till her lifetime. The court also directed the husband to clear arrears within two months.
The couple, married in 1985, has three children. According to the petitioner, she was forced to live separately from 2016 due to repeated disputes and lack of financial support from her husband, who was earning around ₹74,000 per month. She alleged that she had to depend on her mother’s assistance to perform their daughters’ marriages and described her husband as having a volatile temperament.
The husband, however, denied the allegations, claiming that he was subjected to abuse and was forced to leave the matrimonial home. In 2018, the family court dismissed the woman’s petition under Section 125 of the CrPC, stating that she failed to establish neglect or harassment.
Challenging this, the woman approached the High Court, which took a different view after examining the evidence and legal principles governing maintenance.
The court relied on Supreme Court rulings, including Rajathi vs C. Ganesan and Bhuwan Mohan Singh vs Meena, to underline that a wife’s inability to maintain herself is sufficient to claim maintenance, and that delay in approaching the court does not negate this statutory right.
Observing that courts need only take a prima facie view in such cases rather than delve deeply into matrimonial disputes, the High Court held that it was “just and reasonable” to award ₹15,000 per month, considering rising living and medical expenses.
The ruling reinforces the legal principle that maintenance is a right aimed at ensuring dignity and basic sustenance for dependents.