New Delhi:
A school teacher has been ordered by a Delhi court to pay Rs 6000 as maintenance to his wife and two daughters. The wife had allegedly left him fearing for her life, after she gave birth two girls.
Metropolitan Magistrate Savitri asked the woman's husband, working as a teacher in a school at Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, to give maintenance to his wife and daughters, who had fled his home after coming to know about a "conspiracy to kill her."
Rejecting the man's contention, the court said he has no other liability. "Admittedly, the respondent (husband) has not paid any money for maintenance of his children, both of whom are school-going (children) and in modern days' circumstances, a handsome amount has to be spent for their education and upkeep," the magistrate said.
"The husband has no liability other than the petitioners (woman and her two minor daughter), I order him to pay a sum of Rs 2,000 per month to each," the court said.
It added both the daughters are entitled for maintenance till they attain majority. The woman, residing with her brothers in Delhi had moved the magisterial court for maintenance from her husband saying after her marriage in October 2003, she gave birth to two girl children in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
In her plea for maintenance for herself and her daughters, the woman said she was treated with cruelty and taunted for not bringing sufficient dowry and bearing two girls.
"The medical expenses during the daughters' birth were borne by her parents. She was taunted upon for giving birth to female children. On June 7, 2007, the complainant left the matrimonial house as she personally heard about conspiracy to kill her," the court noted.
She told the court that sufficient dowry was given in the marriage and about Rs three lakhs were spent on the wedding, However, her husband and in-laws were not satisfied with the same and they demanded Rs one lakh and a plot of land, she added, in her plea to the court.
She said her husband teaches at a school in Amroha in Uttar Pradesh and is earning about Rs 25,000 per month whereas she was unemployed.
The man had opposed his wife's plea for maintenance saying she is working as a computer operator, takes tuitions and was also doing stitching work.
The court, however, rejected man's submission.