<p>The high court has said that the factors like ‘passage of time’ and ‘increased cost of living’ can be considered as changed circumstances while deciding enhancement of maintenance. The court said this while awarding Rs 20,000 maintenance to a petitioner as against Rs 10,000 awarded by a family court in 2016.</p>.<p>The petitioner was married on November 12, 2010 and the marriage was registered under the Special Marriages Act, 1954.</p>.<p>After their relationship turned sour, the couple moved the family court in 2012. While the issue is still pending before the family court, the wife filed an application in 2016 seeking maintenance and it was allowed with Rs 10,000 per month as maintenance.</p>.<p>Around three years later, the wife filed another application seeking enhancement of maintenance under Section 37 of the Special Marriages Act. She claimed that there have been changed circumstances and cost of living has also increased. She had also claimed that her husband was earning well, in the range of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs two lakh per month. The family court declined to entertain the application stating that merely because the husband earns well, it is not a right for the wife to claim more maintenance.</p>.<p>The wife challenged this order before the high court and in the proceedings, the husband neither appeared nor represented, even after the notice was served by all modes. Justice M Nagaprasanna cited Supreme Court decision in the Reema Singh Salkan vs Sumer Singh Salkan case and said that maintenance should be awarded on a rational basis.</p>.<p>“The changed circumstance need not be that the wife should narrate every circumstance of her living, manner of living or the explicit details for enhanced maintenance. It is permissible for the court to grant enhancement of maintenance on changed circumstances. The changed circumstances in the case would be passage of time and cost of living inter alia. Therefore, the reason so rendered by the concerned court that there is no circumstance narrated for grant of enhancement of maintenance, is unsustainable. Whether the wife would be entitled to maintenance in a similar manner, if she had lived in the house of her husband is what is to be noticed,” the court said.</p>.<p>The court has directed her husband, who is a resident of Hyderabad, to pay enhanced maintenance from the date of her application.</p>
<p>The high court has said that the factors like ‘passage of time’ and ‘increased cost of living’ can be considered as changed circumstances while deciding enhancement of maintenance. The court said this while awarding Rs 20,000 maintenance to a petitioner as against Rs 10,000 awarded by a family court in 2016.</p>.<p>The petitioner was married on November 12, 2010 and the marriage was registered under the Special Marriages Act, 1954.</p>.<p>After their relationship turned sour, the couple moved the family court in 2012. While the issue is still pending before the family court, the wife filed an application in 2016 seeking maintenance and it was allowed with Rs 10,000 per month as maintenance.</p>.<p>Around three years later, the wife filed another application seeking enhancement of maintenance under Section 37 of the Special Marriages Act. She claimed that there have been changed circumstances and cost of living has also increased. She had also claimed that her husband was earning well, in the range of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs two lakh per month. The family court declined to entertain the application stating that merely because the husband earns well, it is not a right for the wife to claim more maintenance.</p>.<p>The wife challenged this order before the high court and in the proceedings, the husband neither appeared nor represented, even after the notice was served by all modes. Justice M Nagaprasanna cited Supreme Court decision in the Reema Singh Salkan vs Sumer Singh Salkan case and said that maintenance should be awarded on a rational basis.</p>.<p>“The changed circumstance need not be that the wife should narrate every circumstance of her living, manner of living or the explicit details for enhanced maintenance. It is permissible for the court to grant enhancement of maintenance on changed circumstances. The changed circumstances in the case would be passage of time and cost of living inter alia. Therefore, the reason so rendered by the concerned court that there is no circumstance narrated for grant of enhancement of maintenance, is unsustainable. Whether the wife would be entitled to maintenance in a similar manner, if she had lived in the house of her husband is what is to be noticed,” the court said.</p>.<p>The court has directed her husband, who is a resident of Hyderabad, to pay enhanced maintenance from the date of her application.</p>
