Woman gets alimony 28 yrs after divorce

Justice at last

It took the city’s lower judiciary 17 years to decide the woman’s maintenance plea, which she had filed belatedly in April 1995, 12 years after her divorce in 1983 due to lack of awareness of her legal rights. As the Tis Hazari courts adjudicated the plea, the woman spent the prime of her life waging a lone legal battle, while her son turned a major and attained an age after which he required no maintenance.

A sessions court finally ordered on March 25 Delhi’s Tilak Nagar resident Inderjeet Singh to pay maintenance to his divorced wife Jasbir Kaur, dismissing his appeal against a magisterial court’s order of May 26, 2010 for maintenance to her.

Singh, a former sergeant with IAF, was asked to pay alimony to Kaur by Additional Sessions Judge who said, “It is settled law that a divorced wife is entitled to and can claim maintenance till she remarries. Divorce does not end the right to maintenance.”

The ASJ asked Singh to pay maintenance, upholding the May 26, 2010 order of the magisterial court, which had told him to pay his ex-wife a monthly maintenance of Rs 3,000 from the date of filing of her application in April 1995.