Divya (nil) 23 December 2009

Calculation of maintenance for husband who does not work

My bhabhi has asked for family maintenance of Rs 50,000.Since my brother's marraige our family business got shut down & he has never actually put in any efforts in family business in past.

Is the court deciding maintenance on basis on assets of other family matters. There is hardly any property in my brother's name.

We do not have any business at this stage & this is also shown to the IT dept. How do we justify in court.

Reply Follow

6 Replies

Adv Archana Deshmukh (Practicing Advocate) 23 December 2009

You do not need to justify anything. The liability to pay maintenance to the wife is upon her husband and not upon the family of the husband. The court will not attach the property of the other family members.

(Guest)

Divvya ji,

Eventhough property is not in your brother's name, if he has any legal share in the property, court may direct to pay maintenance depending upon his income to meet basic needs of your bhabi.

sunil pagare (lawyer) 25 December 2009

It is the duty of the husband to maintain his wife it is not the duty of others but wife can ask share in husband's property, quantum of maintanance will be decide by the court on evidance adduce by both parties.

Hardik Mehta (Family Counsellor) 29 December 2009

Sunil,

Wife cannot ask for the share in Husbands property till he is living. If you are unable to maintain your self then how come you will give the maintenance to your bhabi. On the contrary, if she is working then he can claim maitenance u/s 24 of HMA with RCR/divorce. This is rare and I know a case where the maintenance is granted.

IKGoyal Advocate (Legal) 30 January 2010

wife could not ask maintence from his inlaws , and son doesn't have legal right in faher's property ,Unless it's an ancestral property . but if their is any property ,or any kind of property in name of husband , than court can decide maintence on basis of them.

Bhartiya No. 1 (Nationalist) 31 January 2010

This judgement which appeared in TImes Of India may help u.

Sustaining high living standard no cause for maintenance: Court

Smriti Singh, TNN, 20 February 2009, 12:47am IST

NEW DELHI: Sustaining a high standard of living is no ground for seeking maintenance from an estranged spouse. This is what a Delhi court told a

woman who had sought a maintenance of Rs 1 lakh per month from her husband after the couple separated within a year of their marriage.

The woman, who has a permanent job, had sought the allowance "to maintain the same standard of life". Dismissing her plea, the court said that her income cannot be termed insufficient for maintaining herself.

"The provision (of maintenance) cannot be resorted to by one of the litigating parties to enrich itself at the cost of the other.... The applicant was doing the same job during the golden days of their matrimonial life, hence it cannot be concluded that her status is reduced now," additional district judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said.

In her petition, the woman said her husband earned Rs 78,396 per month while she, as a government school teacher, had a salary of Rs 19,000. Seeking maintenance under Section 24 of the Hindu marriage act, the woman claimed that she was entitled to lead a life of similar standard and status as she was leading in the matrimonial house before separation. The woman also demanded Rs 55,000 as litigation expenses from her husband.

The court took a strong view on the demand for dividing the income of both parties equally, saying that though the provision obliged the court to do so, it doesn't mean "that income of both parties is to be equalized by applying an electronic scale".

ADJ Shastri said, "The object of the provision (Section 24 of Hindu marriage act) to provide maintenance to one of the litigating spouses...is to provide financial assistance to the indigent spouse to maintain herself during the pendency of the proceedings and also to have sufficient funds to carry on the litigation."

The court directed the man to give his estranged wife Rs 20,000 as cost of litigation.

Source: Times Of India web site