Maintenance of the child
SOWMYA
(Querist) 16 December 2017
This query is : Resolved
Sir, I am living separately from my husband due to his abusive nature for tbe past 2 years. Now as things do not seem toget better, we are on the talks of divorce thru mutual consent. We have jointly owned property, whose rights he is ready to relinquish only if I agree to give up maintenance of the child. However, His contribution for the property is a meagre amount . Is there any other legal way to approach this? What is the minimum maintenance for child that should be paid from a father who is earning rs.1 lakh per month? Pls help
P. Venu
(Expert) 17 December 2017
Maintenance of the child is his responsibility. It need not be compromised with the relative rights over the joint property.
Dr J C Vashista
(Expert) 18 December 2017
You can mutually decide alimony for your child, depending upon various factors such as status of parties, standard of living of parties, assets and liabilities of parties etc. etc.
Child is responsibility of both of you.
Guest
(Expert) 18 December 2017
Your query, being one sided, seems to be quite vague and hypothetical, when you have not discussed about your own earning and how you have been maintaining yourself and your child by now after living separately from your husband.
Further, irrespective of his contribution to the property is meagre or even nil, but when that is in his name, he is the owner of the property.
Still further, if you prefer to "agree to give up maintenance of the child," on relinquishing of his rights in the property where is the relevance of showing greed and asking for minimum maintenance for the child and "any other legal way to approach this"? Straight formula for you is either forget about property or the maintenance charges for child.
If prefer to bargaining, both of you should use your own individual discretion, options and sweet will. At the most, you could have consulted your elders, not to put your one-sided story before the experts, who do not know any background of your case. otherwise, you should have discussed the complete background of the case and your own earning capacity and professional capabilities to maintain yourself and your child.
BY THE WAY, when your husband's contribution to the property is meager, what was your own contribution and what was the source of funding of the property?
Guest
(Expert) 18 December 2017
@ Mr. P. Venu
While making his firm statement, "maintenance of the child is HIS responsibility," irt seems Mr. Venu is not aware of the legal position and is quite in a misunderstanding due to his own assumption about maintenance of a child. He may like to know, it is HER responsibility also, not merely of HIS. As such his advice is quite misleading and is against the provisions of law.
Further, before rendering another part of his advice that "It need not be compromised with the relative rights over the joint property," which evidently is due to his own misconception about legal implications, he should have at least ascertained about the financial status of the querist lady.
She has not talked about her own maintenance, which revealed that she is a well established woman and can afford her own as well as her child's maintenance. If she is well established, she should not have talked merely about the maintenance of her child vis-a-vis the property. He may like to check the provisions contained in the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956.
From all the angles, while the query is quite vague, the advice of Mr. Venu is also misleading and wrong.
Guest
(Expert) 18 December 2017
Ms. Sowmaya's vague description of the problem, not only made her own problem as of doubtful or hypothetical nature, but also has tended to jeopardize the position of one of the experts in the eyes of others. She could better have discussed the real background and her own status in the case.
A pertinent question arises, if she thought of living separately and also now ready for divorce due to her husband's abusive nature, she could also have discussed about the causes or background of her husband adopting abusive nature. Obviously, anyone can guess well that her own attitude towards her husband would have been the main cause of irritation for the husband, if he was abusive towards her and is also readily prepared for divorce to get rid of her that too along with the child that too by compromising at the cost of the property he owns. Otherwise, in divorce cases, a child becomes the major cause of dispute between the separating husband & wife.
In my views, she must recheck about her own attitude and the possible causes of bitterness among the husband-wife relations to know why she could not adjust herself to happily live with her husband to arrive at some mutually acceptable compromise.
About child's maintenance, it is not the husband alone, who is liable for maintenance, but she is also liable to maintain the child, rather only she can be made liable to maintain the child, if she is better of the husband in financial status, more so when mother can take much better care that the father of the child.
However, if the problem is merely a hypothetical one, no solution can work in theoretical artificial cases.
Guest
(Expert) 18 December 2017
Although Mr. Jigyasu's analysis of the problem of the querist is perfect, but he should not have been so critical about the expert, Mr. P. Venu. Sometimes, misunderstanding do prevail due to the jargons of law. Even the most learned and experienced lawyers sometimes do get misled due to some misunderstanding or through an oversight.
