New Delhi:
Considering a man's liability towards his two estranged wives, a Delhi court has reduced the interim maintenance amount he was directed to pay to his second spouse from Rs 8,000 to Rs 6,000 in a domestic violence case.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Bansal, while partly allowing the man's appeal against a magisterial court order directing him to pay Rs 8,000 to his estranged second wife and two minor daughters, said the amount was "on higher side".
"Grant of interim maintenance at Rs 8,000 per month is slightly on higher side particularly taking into account the fact that appellant (man) has to pay Rs 3,000 per month to his earlier wife also."
"Amount of interim maintenance is reduced to Rs 6,000 per month for respondent and both the children..." the judge said. The sessions court also observed that "the purpose of maintenance laws is that the wife and children are not left to suffer penury and destitution. The purpose is also not to make a husband suffer the same consequences."
It said the magistrate was silent on the aspect of amount the man was paying his ex-wife.
"Perusal of the impugned order shows that the metropolitan magistrate did not take into consideration that he was paying Rs 3,000 per month as maintenance to his earlier wife and child in compliance of the order of Family Court at Jabalpur.
The impugned order is totally silent on this aspect... "This fact was mentioned in the affidavit of appellant but probably it skipped attention of the magistrate," it said.
The court's observations came on the appeal of the man who had challenged the magisterial court order saying his income was Rs 7,000 per month and he was spending around Rs 5,000 under different heads and was paying Rs 3,000 per month to earlier wife as maintenance.
The court, however, refused to accept the income claims of the man and the woman saying that "in the absence of any evidence, the assertions of respondent(wife) about income and properties of appellant cannot be accepted at this stage."
In the complaint, the woman, a Delhi resident, claimed that her monthly expenses were Rs 10,500 which were being taken care of by her mother and alleged that her estranged husband was earning around Rs four lakh per month from all sources and he had properties at various places.
The magisterial court had assessed the man's income as Rs 15,000 per month, out of which he was directed to pay Rs 8,000 per month to his second wife and two children.