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Before the High Court, the husband had submitted that he was a poor priest in a village temple and was earning his livelihood by part time tuition
The Supreme Court has expressed its shock over the Jharkhand High Court's order reducing monthly maintenance amount from Rs 5000 to 1000 for a wife under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
"It is shocking that the maintenance amount has been so drastically reduced to a petty amount of Rs 1,000 (Rupees One Thousand) per month for a lady to maintain herself. We find no justification for reduction of the said amount to such extreme lower limit," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said.
Hearing a plea by the wife against the order, the court noted the High Court had reduced the amount fixed by the trial court.
It has set aside the High Court's order of December 21, 2022 and restored that of the Trial Court awarding Rs 5,000 per month as maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
The husband has not appeared before the top court.
Before the High Court, the husband filed a criminal revision under Section 19(4) of the Family Court Act against the ex parte order passed by the Principal Judge, Family Court directing him to pay maintenance of Rs 5000 per month to the opposite party, wife.
He said he is a poor priest in a village temple and he is earning his livelihood by part time tuition. Therefore, he is not in a position to make payment of Rs 5000 per month. There is no evidence to show that he was earning Rs 25,000 per month.
In its order, the High Court had said, "It appears that the court below has awarded the maintenance by assessing the income of the petitioner to be Rs 25,000 per month from his occupation of priesthood and tuition. A further income of Rs 5 Lakh per annum from agriculture has also been stated without any documentary evidence to show that the petitioner was having agricultural land in his name. Assessment of income of Rs 25,000 per month by tuition appears to be highly unrealistic considering the semi urban area in which the petitioner was living. A fair estimate of income cannot be more than Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 per month."
Case Title: Richa Devi vs. Gautam Kr. Pandey
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