A woman with the capacity to earn and make ends meet cannot be denied maintenance in case of marital disputes, said Bombay High Court recently.
Justice N J Jamadar dismissed a husband’s challenge against the order of the additional sessions judge, Kolhapur that required him to provide ₹3,000 to his wife every month. The court said that it is not the law that merely because a woman is earning something, she becomes not entitled to maintenance from her husband who has a moral and legal obligation to maintain her.
The wife filed a violence case against the husband and his relatives and appealed for monthly maintenance for her and her son. The sessions judged allowed her appeal which was contended by the husband on grounds that she works as a silversmith and can maintain herself.
“Under the weight of circumstances, the wife must have been forced to work to sustain herself. The fact that she was working as a silversmith and earned ₹100 or 150 per day, could not have been arrayed against her by the learned magistrate. In this inflationary era, the income of about ₹5,000 per month, even if construed rather generously, would not be sufficient to meet the necessities of life,” Justice Jamadar noted.
The court mentioned that it is a moral and legal obligation of a husband to maintain his wife, “Neither mere potential to earn nor the actual earning, Howsoever meagre it may be, is sufficient to deny the claim of maintenance,” Justice Jamadar explained.