No maintenance for 'wife' who deserts husband

A woman who deserts her husband without a ‘strong and sufficient cause’ and lives willingly at her parent's house is not entitled to maintenance from him, a court has said.

Judicial Magisterate S S Gadkar of Akot, while rejecting a woman's application for maintenance on Friday, observed that, under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the petitioner is not eligible for it as she left her husband willingly.

The woman's husband told the court that his wife left their home when she was asked about ‘a love letter’ she received five days after their marriage.