K'taka HC fixes 6-month deadline to decide interim maintenance pleas

Interim maintenance: HC fixes an outer limit of 6 months to decide applications High Court issues guidelines to trial courts

The high court has issued a series of directions to the trial courts fixing an outer limit of six months to decide applications under section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act, seeking interim maintenance.

Noting delay in consideration of such applications, Justice M Nagaprasanna stated that reasons have to be recorded in writing in case there is a delay.

The guidelines include service of notice on the application to be valid in the eyes of law even if made through e-mail /WhatsApp, the court to grant two months time to each parties - for the husband to file objections and for the wife to file a statement of assets and liabilities. The Bench said once the statement of assets and liabilities is filed, the concerned court should hear the parties and pass appropriate orders, within four months thereafter, if not earlier. The concerned court should refrain itself from granting unnecessary adjournments to both the husband and the wife, in order to achieve the timeline, the bench said.

Justice Nagaprasanna noted that though proviso to Section 24 directs that an application filed under Section 24 should be disposed as far as possible within 60 days, the term ‘as far as possible’ is being interpreted to mean that the court can pass orders even after six months - in some cases, two years, three years or even four years after filing the application.

“This delay in considering those applications for maintenance would defeat the very soul of the provision which is to give succour to the wife who leaves or is made to leave the matrimonial house in myriad circumstances. Merely, because the provision directs disposal of the application, as far as possible within 60 days, it cannot be stretched to an extent by the Courts to an extent that the wife would not see the amount of maintenance for ages,” the court said.

In the case at hand, the court enhanced interim maintenance payable to the petitioner wife from Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000 per month and litigation expenses from Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh. This was after considering the fact that the husband is drawing a salary of Rs 3.16 lakh per month and the wife no longer has any avocation, following loss of job after the onset of Covid-19. In this case, the wife had filed the application on February 6, 2020 and the court had passed orders on August 26, 2022, almost 30 months from the date of filing the application.