Maintainence under section 125

@Avnish Kaur

read 125 crpc instead of 125 cpc above

Koi baat nahi hum log samaj  gaye ..I think you first write down in ms word and thereafter post in this msg.  so that mistake cannot happen.

Justice Dhingra's Judgement the link to which Kushan ji has given is taken by a pinch of salt by many. They mostly and predictably have the same type of conclusions.

I have a point to make regarding honorable Justice Dhingra's judgment the link of which Mr. Kushan has given below his posting.

. Imagine a rural or semi urban scenario where a husband and wife both have MBA degree and both are able bodied. Now I am talking about how equity without which equality fails to materialise.  supposing the girl has done her MBA from an ordinary college in her semi urbane area(girl from rural area may have gone to this semi urbane area) and the boy because of his high mobility may have gone to places like Delhi or Pune and joined a reputed college for his MBA. In all probability as often happens the girl from rural area may also have done her MBA from a distance education course, may be from Anna Malai University!   On the face of it both have MBA degrees and both are able bodied. But you know as well as i who in this scenario would stand better chance of getting a job and what differences would be there in the salaries they would earn and the long term career prospects. 

Second,  and not- to be- ignored factor is the difference, yes even in the changing times, the big difference between a woman's and a man's mobility pattern. The husband may get a good job anywhere and he would be ready to go wherever he gets a job. A woman, in this scenario,  his wife, may face several constraints. These constraints may have to do with social constraints, constraints with regard to her safe stay in a particular location where she may have gotten job, and her status as a divorced woman which would put her again at a disadvantage. It is difficult to find a rented house easily when the status of a woman is revealed as a single woman and worse still as a divorced woman;  there may not be good and safe facilities of hostels and PG accommodatons: remember all women may not belong to cities like Bombay, Delhi etc.etcl  

These scenarios are very well known scenarios and majority of women find them in this type of scenario due to discrimination that starts from parental homes itself. 

In the light of above scenario, can one say that same degrees promise the same benefits for both husband and wife? 

There may be scenarios where reverse may happen--but those would be exceptional instances. 

The above scenario is an imaginary one. Read justice Dhingra's judgment now in this light. 

In the case in which this judgement was pronounced, I am sure these factors may have been considered, but they are not described. Just the term of equality of s*xes as enshrined in the constitution is no guarantee that such equality exists in de facto/ substantive sense. There is a very big difference between substantive and formal equality and to reach the state of substantive equality, one needs to closely looked into the contexts, and constraints and specific conditions shaped by social institutions.

After all india has a National Empowerment policy(2001) where a strong commitment to mainstreaming gender in to policy and law making processes have been made, and after all India is a signatory to treaty like CEDAW which does talk forcefully about the difference between formal and substantive equality and points to equity as a route to reach substantive equality. 

wat u want to say in case reffered to by kushan? u made several assumptions girl from small college etc.why you did not assume reverse. she was working with a mnc before marriage, how she will be at disadvantage.in this case boy lost job as a result of fake 498a applied on him leading to stay on his overseas travel.why shud he be a scapegoat. first he loooses his job becoz of this crazy girl then to pay also after loss of job secondary to false 498a by girl. this was a case with stay together of about 10 days.

purpose of interim maintenance is not to eqate earning of two parties , but to see that they can have a reasonable living and neither it shud be so excessive to bring respondent to a financially disadvantaged position where he looses the legal war because of financial hardship. under hindu law a male is supposed to maintain his parents also . so a hindu male is allowed a bigger share of his salary.do u  think yourself  to be above justice dhingra and supreme court. this is feeling of grandeur and according to freud this requires medication.

pathetic thinking of you two renuka and prabhakar . cant u see boy loosing job because of this fraud girl and asking for maintenance too. justice dhingra is a very honest , displined and knowledgable person and i have seen some comments about him by some misachiveous advocates on this site. these kind of advocates think themselves to be above law, and always talk of apex court . they drag their clients upto apex court squeeze tem and vanish. they also do advertising here on LCI.they will also make noise of feminism agenda.

such money minded advocats shud not be allowed in family courts where ideally there shud be no advocates.family courts require a very different kind of approach more towards resolution of disputes by mutually agreeable settlement.

I have high regard for Advocate Kushan and his contribution. His present contribution has been thanked by me. 

He has posted this judgement link in a certain context with a clarification from the apex court and that was very welcome. Reading of high court judgment by all means can be juxtaposed with the reasoning and interpretation of Apex court judgement. 

Now in my posting 

at the outset , I have said imagined scenario, but which may  not be very far from the reality. 

Later I have said, certainly these factors must have been considered. 

I have also said that a reverse condition may be possible but such instances are rare. Women do not just work in MNC or cities like Bombay, Delhi, Banglore and so on. They also work in  towns and semi urban areas.

When an issue is there in family forum, its multi dimensions are always considered by members and it will be done in future too. 

All said, this scenario remains valid. Hence taking something out of the context may not serve the purpose. 

The term equality of s*xes  just in a formal sense of the word does not explain much: it does not explain equality of circumstances, equality of  perceived equal value of qualification in the market, equality of recruitment processes, equality of mobility pattern which all impinge on one's career prospects. And that's why equity word has gained such an importance in both national and international arena because it takes into account all those differences in the circumstances generated by social and cultural institutions. 

A person who differs from a judgement can't be said as mischevious. Then if some judgment is contradicted by subsequent judgement of division bench or Apex court: you know what  the implication is!

Learned Friends ,

I think there is contradiction in the matter....even law is not clear about it...(as I could see in the contradicting posts ). Friends in this context I would like to add my view point :

@ It is our constitutional duty to uplift ourselves and get perfection . I was left totally unwanted and looted by my husband ... i suffered a fraud and more than that i suffered in the society with a KALANK of divorcee . I faced all and one time had no money even to survive . My parents gave me jwellery worth 10 lakhs which is all taken by my MIL .They denied in court . My money and all is taken by them. Then I started agin from ZERO and cleared exams completed my docotrate in commerce but it was not easy . i managed to get the job and honestly striving hard to earn more tahn my hubby but I LOST MY ENERGY ,RYTHM ,DESIRE AND MORE IMPORTANT MY AGE .MY JOURNEY IN MARRIGAE TOOK 3 years .Friends I honesly want to say that I did all this but many of the womwn could not ...the pressure ...the circumstances for an indian lady are not very favourable...it is tough ...ground level reality for an Indain DIVORCEE lady is nerve shivering .She is just like BENAMI PROPERTY...

@ Law should be clear ... NATURAL JUSTICE should win ...such women should be given the environment to flourish and survive with dignity.....and women i request u all not to make misuse of laws as if u do so other eligible women  suffers .The "mens rea " i.e. the intension should be clean . hearts should be clean and your lips should not lie. Men folks I know it is pinching that your hard earned money is taken by u r wife but u all shuld shunt away with your duties .After all the women who lost her honour to u needs some respect from u and some help too. Think if she would have been with u she could have taken u r whole purse and today she is fighting for a small portion from your salary .

In short my view point is LAW SHOULD SEE THE INTENSION OF THE PARTIES before taking the final decision about maintainence . Natural justice should not be defeated at any cost .

Regards

Bharti

renuka madam , justice dhingra judgement is in delhi high court , he knows delhi and its social fabric very well having worked in delhi district court from 1977. why his judgement should be seen in light of false assumptions made by you.

i agree with bharti that in a marriage of long standing maintenance should be given liberally to a non-earning spouse. maintenance should not be allowed to be used up as tool to extract money in cases of overnight runawy marriages ( marrying for a week / month) and then filing false 498a and dowry cases. also sec 24 should not be allowed to be used as a trick to delay divorce proceedings.

justice dhingra is among the most learned DELHI HC judges . he is an engineer , company secretary and LLM.

false assumptions by so called gender reserchers cannot change prevailing social fabric in Delhi.

renuka says :

Justice Dhingra's Judgement the link to which Kushan ji has given is taken by a pinch of salt by many. They mostly and predictably have the same type of conclusions.

renuka will you explain which judgement concerning maintenance by justice Dhingra was reversed by apex court?

Good and very good posting by Dr. Bharati. It is not just your story, it is story of multitude of women from Cities, towns and villages. 

I have again and again said when it comes to maintenance all these things have to be considered and I have said the similar things in my posting. The lost opportunities have to be considered. The not so level playing field have to be considered. 

I have explicitly written that women are not just working in Delhi and in Delhi also not all women are in the same situations. 

I have said nothing about honorable Justice Dhingra,  but whether you called me so called or any other thing, yes I have interpreted the equality of s*xes term from a gender lens. In our professions we all strive for excellence and integrity but that does not mean our view points can't be discussed and debated. 

How does it matter if some people call me so called gender researcher, and some give worth and value to my views. Not really. The important thing for me is to analyse from a gender lens....to some it would be welcome , to some it will not be. 

agree with mr hedevil . i was just asking any maintenance judgement  of justice dhingra  reversed by apex court. see the law is very clear on maintenance issues , there is no contradiction. and lawyers know all judgements favouring and against wife. it is facts of case which ultimately decide the outcome. advocates know the ultimate outcome of the case to an extent , but few of them provoke clients to go for unnecessary litigation.

i sugesst unnecessary litigations should be avoided. my lawyer told me, for every divorce filed by a male or female he has 5-6 files . divorce, 498a, custody, istridhan, crpc 125 and so on.

i suggest even during divorce proceedings there should be a compulsory monthly meeting of the warring couple  preferably on weekends within court campus with video recording  in absence of lawyers to resolve disputes by conciliation.Some  advocates just earn out of the communication gap between the parties.

this will go long way in reducing excesssive workload on family courts.

family courts should work like true family courts except in cases of annulment proceedings, i have seen many judges practising that with very good success rates.

For all those who think discussing and bringing out a critique of the judgement  is a mischief: 

"A fair and reasonable criticism of a judgement which is a public document  or which is a public act of a judge concerned with administration of justice would not constitute contempt( here in this context mischief) In fact, such fair and reasonable criticism must be encouraged because after all no one, much less judges, can claim infallibility" ....

J.M. Panchal, J. in Hari Singh Nagra V Kapil Sibal( 2010) 7 SCC 502, paras 21 and 22. 

This part ( here in this context mischief) is my addition. 

 This post has exprssed everything.

Here It is clear that Indian lady and Indian evironment is facing alien standard regarding maintenance, which is thier right.. and Our court is feeling that they are doing great job, by denying maintenance.

there is nothing wrong in acitisizing any judgement and any of the justice be it Del HC or Dhingra

Once the ppl who were like "Aurat Ki Kamai Khanewale" had no respect at all and were considered as shame i.e. of far below standard.

BUt Nowdays ppl feel no shame in asking maintenance from their wife. or least doing everything for denying their right.

Also there are pple who without any shame  wish to see their ex wives in pitiable condition, forgetting that with them they have some part of their life.

There is difference between criticising judge and his judgment.  Judges should not be criticised but their judgments can be criticised.  In every appellate court, revisional court and review court, the judgements passed by the lower court, i.e.,  impugned judgements are criticised with the strongest of expresssions such as, the impugned judgement is violating principles of natural justice, mechanically written and non-application of mind is visible on the face of the judgement.  The appellate court, revisional court or review court will not take these things offensively, then why should some people on this forum take very seriously about the criticism of the judgement.

Learned Friends ,

Although my post have some personal stuff but hope it gives a new dimentional approach of thinking about maintainence .My experiments with Indain judiciay has given me mystic fables which shows the depth of red tapism in our judiciary .

As already told before I filed maintainence under sec 125 in 2008 . At that point of time I wasin complete plight ..my money looted ...my honor lost ...society questioning me ...eyes haunting me ....my old parents in tears and only one younger sister frightened to see my plight .....and no male support ...the only support was my husband whom i believed will be my everything had left me .He knew I was weak as i had no support and he was a powerfull army officer who at once got a new girl friend after he left me .

Anyways I continued trying to save my family ....all in vain ... now what i suffered at court will make u all shiver . I was beautiful.The family court judge of my father's age messages me that he loves me...and nonsense stuff. I cried a lot . i could not fight against the whole system.... but i went to the chamber of judge and said Sir i have nothing left except my dignity ...even if i losse case i donot care ..i care for my honesty and my love for my husband .......the same judge was later suspended as he was exploiting many women...

But my case was delayed badly ...and of course my husband took full use of the situation and also of his uniform as he is an officer . then there was a fraud ...he took fradulent divorce ...which has been reopened in a different part of the country ......

Now coming back to maintainence ...where is it ? ??????? . God had mercy on me and my education background fetched me job only to fight more against the wrong doers . Where is justice ...did law gave me money to survive when i really needed in 2008 . To be honest i asked my hubby to give me that money which was given by me to him during marrige ...he refued that too..forget about the maintainence . JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED ....natural justice was defeated when i was denied maintainence . my husband was buying ford ikon and enjoying his life when i was struggling after the misacarrige of our child ...

Today this delay has changed the circumstances : it looks as if a civil servant officer is asking for maintainence .Although my husband is earning much higher . I am alredy in debt of the past 3 years from family and friends. Lawyers twist and turns the case but can they see the actual pain of a divorcee lady .As an officer also i cannot escape the comments of others ...those wispers behind me ...and u need to be very carefull in every word u speak . its no more a natural world for me...

The essence of this story is : that interim maintainence should be granted hassell free and if wife has claimed it by cheating there should be punishment for cheating . The greedy wifes sometimes creates problem from the real genuine cases . courts are like mandir where we must not cheat ... if delay is there then the real purpose of maintainence gets defeated .

With these points my fight in high court will be to highlight all these points . I get or does not get maintainence not a big question but the QUESTION IS : do husband has the duty towards a left over wife ..or not ..

will slow and stagnant judiciary which are running on the wheels of  whims and fancies of judges ruin the system ???? or we will see a better tomorrow of crystal clear outlook of judiciay .

regards to all

i will be thankfull if u could enrich me regarding m y original post

thanks a lot to all

bharti j majumdar

below I am posting a news article, related to maintenance, just check whether it is useful or not,

Husband bound to provide maintenance regardless of income New Delhi, Apr 4, (PTI):
A husband has moral and legal duty to provide a decent maintenance amount to estranged wife in consonance with her living standards irrespective of his income, a Delhi court has said.
"A married man is under a legal and moral obligation to maintain his estranged wife whether he possesses any property or not or whether or not he has any income. The obligation to maintain her is personal in character and arises from the very existence of the relationship between the parties," Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said.

The court passed the order while declining the plea of a husband, Shalabh Srivastava, seeking alteration in the interim-maintenance amount fixed by a lower court on the grounds that his income had substantially come down after he joined a new job. It declined the husband's plea saying that he had an earning potential of Rs 35,500 per month and if he has preferred to minimise his income and work at a lesser salary, then he cannot be allowed to take advantage of his own conduct.

"The fact of taking up a job at a lesser salary clearly indicates that the revisionist (husband) is deliberately making a conscious effort to reduce and minimise his income. It is also not believable that any man would work at a lesser income than what he is getting already." "The averments of the appellant clearly show that a deliberate attempt has been made by him to lessen his income and he cannot be permitted to take advantage of this fact," the court observed.

The court rejected the contention of husband that the earning potential of his estranged wife was far more than the amount she was getting as maintenance. "There is nothing brought on the record prima facie by the husband to show that the earning potential of the respondent (wife) is more than Rs 7,000 as observed by the trial court," the court said.

It also turned down the plea that the wife was living separately due to her own conduct, saying that the fact was immaterial for the purpose of award of interim-maintenance. "The dispute regarding conduct of the parties are immaterial....only the earnings, properties, assets as well as the earning potential of both the sides is to be taken into consideration," it said.

Shalabh had appealed against the order of a trial court fixing Rs 7,000 per month as the maintenance for his estranged wife Ritu. While awarding the maintenance, the trial court had concluded that Shalabh's income was around Rs 35,500.

https://www.deccanherald.com/content/62028/husband-bound-provide-maintenance-regardless.html