Wife To Give Alimony To Ex-Husband Who Managed Home While She Completed Studies

In a rare case, a woman from Maharashtra has been directed to pay monthly alimony to her separated husband. The decision, initially passes five years ago, had been challenged by the woman in the high court. However, Justice Bharati Dangre, of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, has now upheld the orders of lower courts in 2017 and 2019, ruling in favour of the ex-husband. As a result, the wife, a school teacher, will now have to pay maintenance every month.

In 2017, a lower court ordered the woman to pay Rs 3,000 per month as maintenance to her ex-husband. Refusing to pay, the woman had challenged the order in yet another court in 2019. Upholding the previous decision, the court stated that the school teacher must pay maintenance to her husband, additionally directing the headmaster of the school where she worked to "deduct Rs 5,000 from monthly, from the salary of wife and send the amount to the court” to clear all unpaid maintenance that the husband was entitled to.

Taking it to the high court, the school teacher challenged both the orders, in a written petition before the bench of Justice Bharati Dangre, who upheld the application for interim maintenance filed by the husband under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, stating that the husband was in fact entitled to interim maintenance.

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The couple in question married in April 1992. In 2015, their divorce was finalised, when the wife applied for divorce on grounds of cruelty and desertion. In 2017, two years later after the divorce, the husband filed a plea before a lower court, seeking maintenance of Rs, 15000 per month from the wife. He claimed to have no source of income.

The husband stated that he had given up on his dreams, and had helped his wife obtain a degree, while he toiled at home and took care of household affairs. The wife who has acquired degree qualifications in MA, BEd, is currently a school teacher. The man also claimed that the grounds on which divorce was filed by the wife, were untrue.

As per report, the husband claimed that he is unemployed, and with no property to his name, has no source of income. He also pleaded that he is unable to secure a job because of his poor health. As the wife earns a monthly salary of Rs 30,000 along with possessing valuable household articles and other properties, the man claimed she can afford to pay him maintenance for a lifetime.

The wife who opposed the petition told the court that her husband ran a grocery shop and also earned an income by leasing out his auto-rickshaw. Denying his claims of being dependent on her, she stated that she also has a daughter to take care of, and urged the court to dismiss the husband's petition.