Sumit 25 July 2017

Maintenance decision reserved by court for more than 9 month

I have filed divorce case in district court, under section 13 in November 2015 and then my wife filed Interim maintenance application under sec 24 in May 2016. My wife intention is to delay case as long as possible. Arguments on sec 24 held in November 2016 (both parties submitted proof documents) and we were expecting maintenance order in December 2016. But decision has been reserved and adjourned by court seven times citing reason as “Arg. not advanced” so that next date is in August 2017. Each time my advocate appears in court on date and he has been told to come after 2 PM (mostly order comes after 2 PM) but get another date instead of order. When I questioned my advocate why court is citing wrong reason that “Arg. not advanced”, whereas in actual arguments happened in Nov’2016, then my advocate answered that it is normal practical trend that judge don’t take ownership of the decision delay at their end. If we argue with judge she may give unfavorable decision in sec 24 and also sec 13. Also it could be harmful in other cases of the advocate. Also judge can ask to repeat arguments citing reason that some shortcoming in previous one held in Nov’16. Also my advocate told me that my wife will get maintenance from date of filing application i.e. May 2016 (therefore no monetary loss for her) and she is able to achieve her objective of delaying the case. My quarries are:

Is it really normal for courts to cite reason “Arg. Not advanced” instead of “Decision reserved”, so as to put liability on advocates instead of themselves. Aren’t they suppose to explain why Arguments not advancing, if it is so.
I believe with passage of time (9 months) judge may be forgetting details of Arguments, then what could be the reason she is delaying the matter. Is judge has liberty to do so, when Supreme Court has given guideline to complete interim maintenance case in 6 months (here 15 months) and judge can’t reserve decision for more than 50 days (here 9 months, out of 15 months).
Without involving my advocate, can I escalate the matter to judge or somewhere above district court? If yes, how can I prove that arguments completed 9 months back? Can someone question judge if Arguments not advancing, then why it is not advancing. If any advocate is not coming then court should do ex-party decision against him.

Please help what should be my best course of action.

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5 Replies

Online.498a.DV.Act.Crusader 25 July 2017

Brother,

Court wil take its own time. You cant force court to dance according to your tune. Your OWN wife did not dance to your tunes, how will court dance to your tunes???

You wait.

Court will give some decision, say for example Rs 10000 per month.

So 10000 multiplied by number of months. From date of petitoin of wife. It can be 1 year, 2 years or someitmes 5 years.

You will have two options.

1. To take back wife.

2. To pay balance from day 1 till date of order or go to jail forever for not paying maintenance to wife.

Instead of waiting till court orders, pay her lumpsum alimony and get rid of her, or else this jhanjhat of paying alimony will be there till you die.

Think wisely, anyhow you will pay, why not pay now and be free than fight for nothing and still pay and go to jail for not paying till thus far??

Samarpan (M)99958670740 (Free legal advice and legal aid cell) 25 July 2017

The judge is wrong to delay the decision on interim maintenance application and also wrong to give false reasoning of non-advancement of arguments, whereas he is lazy enough to give reasoned order. But as respondent you should not worry as nothing you would lose. In fact, there should have been grievance by the applicant wife for delay in getting decision. If the interim maintenance order goes in her favour, supposing from the date of application, that also would not affect your interest, I mean delayed decision would not affect your interest. Sufficient time would be given to you to pay arrears or statutory appeal period is always available to you. That's why, your advocate is not insisting the judge to deliver order expeditiously.

Sumit 25 July 2017

Originally posted by : Online.498a.DV.Act.Crusader
	Brother, Court wil take its own time. You cant force court to dance according to your tune. Your OWN wife did not dance to your tunes, how will court dance to your tunes??? You wait. Court will give some decision, say for example Rs 10000 per month. So 10000 multiplied by number of months. From date of petitoin of wife. It can be 1 year, 2 years or someitmes 5 years. You will have two options. 1. To take back wife. 2. To pay balance from day 1 till date of order or go to jail forever for not paying maintenance to wife. Instead of waiting till court orders, pay her lumpsum alimony and get rid of her, or else this jhanjhat of paying alimony will be there till you die. Think wisely, anyhow you will pay, why not pay now and be free than fight for nothing and still pay and go to jail for not paying till thus far??

Thanks Brother for your Reply. This is really frightning. She not accepting any lumpsum for settlement, which indicate that I was not such a bad guy, but on the other hand she blaimed me for dowry, DV, child miscarriage, atempt to murder,etc, etc (although no separate case but only police complaint)

Sumit 25 July 2017

Originally posted by : Samarpan (M)9599874404
	The judge is wrong to delay the decision on interim maintenance application and also wrong to give false reasoning of non-advancement of arguments, whereas he is lazy enough to give reasoned order. But as respondent you should not worry as nothing you would lose. In fact, there should have been grievance by the applicant wife for delay in getting decision. If the interim maintenance order goes in her favour, supposing from the date of application, that also would not affect your interest, I mean delayed decision would not affect your interest. Sufficient time would be given to you to pay arrears or statutory appeal period is always available to you. That's why, your advocate is not insisting the judge to deliver order expeditiously.

Sir, you are right. To harass me , she won't do any job in future ( in past she did). Therefore assuming I will be maintaining her (against sec 24, 125, DV etc) for infinite period, the only loss of mine will be delay in sec 13 divorce case, as divorce case in not proceding till maintenance order come.Actually her objective is to delay divorce case as long as possible.

Adv Radhika Mehta (Advocate) 26 July 2017

Legally, there is nothing which you can do as it is not the other side but the Judge who is delaying the matter. Maybe on the next date, you can personally speak to the Judge and apprise him/ her of the entire situation. If your wife was previously working, she is not expected to sit idle to recieve money from the husband.