Husband, even if unemployed, bound to pay maintenance to wife: Allahabad HC

Lucknow: In a significant ruling, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has said that an able-bodied husband can not escape the responsibility to pay maintenance to his wife on the ground that he is unemployed.

A single bench comprising Justice Saurav Lavania gave this ruling a few days back while dismissing a criminal revision challenging the order of the Family Court directing him to pay Rs 2500 per month as interim maintenance amount to his wife.

‘It is the sacrosanct duty of the husband to provide financial support to the wife and to the minor children. The husband is required to earn money even by physical labour, if he is able-bodied and could not avoid his obligation except on the legally permissible grounds mentioned in the statute,’’ the court said.

‘’It has been held that the object of maintenance proceedings is not to punish a person for his past neglect, but to prevent vagrancy and destitution of a deserted wife, by providing her food, clothing, and shelter by a speedy remedy. As settled by this Court, Section 125 Cr.P.C. is a measure of social justice and is specially enacted to protect women and children. It also falls within the Constitutional sweep of Article 15(3), reinforced by Article 39 of the Constitution of India,’’ it added.

The wife had contended that she got married with the revisionist in November 2013 in Jalandhar in Punjab. She further said that her in-laws and hubby used to torture her for dowry and that she was assaulted in February 2021 and left alone in a reneted room for several days. Her brother later took her to Lucknow.

She later filed a petition in the Family Court seeking maintenance and claimed that her husband dealt in fruits and earned Rs one lakh per month. The husband, however, contended that his business had closed and he had no income.

The Family court directed the husband to pay Rs 2,500 per month as maintenance.