Regarding 125(3)

respected sir,

In one of its recent judgement, the Supreme Court has observed that a petition filed by a wife under section 125 of CrPc who was earlier granted permanent alimony under section 25 of Hindu marriage act.cannot be entertained.

This judgment was held in the case of RAKESH MALHOTRA vs. KRISHNA MALHOTRA.

In this case, the wife's petition seeking divorce was allowed and the appeal against the same was pending before the High Court. The Court allowed the divorce petitions and also granted her permanent alimony under Section 25 of Hindu Mariage Act 

In parallel proceedings, the wife also preferred an application for maintenance under Section 125 CrPc which was dismissed by the Magistrate, and the High Court allowed the Revision Petition against this order.

The issue considered by the Apex Court in appeal thus was whether, after the grant of permanent alimony under section 25 prayer can be made before the Magistrate under section 125 for maintenance over and above what has been granted by the Court while exercising power under section 25 of the act.

The Court examined the scope of Section 25 and thus observed:

Section 25(1) empowers the Court, while passing any decree, to consider the status of the parties and whether any arrangement needs to be made in favour of the wife or the husband; and by way of permanent alimony, an order granting maintenance can also be passed by the Court. At the stage of passing a decree for dissolution of marriage, the Court thus considers not only the earning capacity of the respective parties, the status of the parties as well as various other issues. The determination so made by the Court has an element of permanency involved in the matter. However, the Parliament has designedly kept a window open in the form of subsections (2) and (3) in that, in case there be any change in 5 circumstances, the aggrieved party can approach the Court under sub sections (2) and (3) and ask for variation/ modification. Since the basic order was passed by the concerned Court under section 25 (1), by very nature, the order of modification/variation can also be passed by the concerned Court exercising power under section 25(2) and (3).In the High Court judgement, Sudeep Chaudhary vs. Radha Chaudhary [(1997) 11 SCC 286] was relied upon by the High Court to grant maintenance to the wife.

The Court thus finally set aside the HC's order and directed that the application preferred under section 125 shall be treated and considered as one preferred under section 25(2) of the said Act.

hope you find this helpful

Regards