The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court upheld a lower court’s order directing a woman to pay alimony to her ex-husband, who claims to have no means to support himself.
The lower court, in 2017, ordered the woman to pay “Rs 3,000 per month as maintenance pendente lite from the date of application till disposal of the petition" to the husband. A similar order was passed in 2019, directing the headmaster of the school to "deduct Rs 5,000 from monthly salary of wife and send the amount to the court” as arrears after she refused to pay her husband.
Justice Bharati Dangre of the HC cited Section 25 of Hindu Marriage Act 1955 as well Supreme Court rulings given from time to time, while rejecting a petition filed by the woman teacher against the lower court’s order. Section 25 of the Act provides that a court can order the respondent to pay maintenance and support such gross sum or monthly or periodically to the applicant.
The woman teacher had approached the HC challenging two orders passed by second joint civil judge, senior division, Nanded in August 2017 passing an interim order asked for payment of monthly alimony of Rs 3,000 and in December 2019, the headmaster of the school, where the woman is serving was asked to deduct Rs 5000 from her monthly salary and send it to the court as she had not paid the interim maintenance since the August 2017 order.
The woman contested that after marriage in April 1992, she separated from her husband and got a decree of divorce in January 2015. The order for alimony was passed after that and the same cannot be sustained, she contended.
Justice Dangre, while citing section 24 and 25 of the act, ruled: “A conjoint reading of both the provisions, would reveal that both the sections in the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 are enabling provisions and confer a right on the indigent spouse to claim maintenance either pendente lite i.e. depending on the outcome of the litigation) or in the nature of permanent alimony and maintenance.
The HC further observed: “It is open for the court to decide the application filed by the husband under Section 25 of the 1955 Act, seeking monthly maintenance, by way of final proceedings, pending which, the application for interim maintenance filed under Section 24 of the Act of 1955, has been rightly entertained by the judge and the husband has been held entitled to interim maintenance while the proceedings under Section 25 are pending.”