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Court asked the husband to pay all the arrears as well while noting that the husband cannot absolve himself from the liability of maintenance merely by saying that he was ready to cohabit.
A single judge bench of the Bombay High Court at Nagpur comprising Justice Bharathi Dangre recently upheld an order awarding maintenance to the wife under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure even after the husband was ready to cohabit with the wife.
The husband had filed an appeal before the high court against the order of the Family Court awarding monthly maintenance of Rs. 8000 to the wife.
The husband claimed that the same was unjustified as he had made every attempt to cohabit with his wife. The husband relied on the cross-examination of the wife where she had admitted that attempts were made at the end of the husband to bring her back, but there was no response.
The husband argued that without any sufficient reason, the wife had refused to live with him and therefore, he was not liable to pay any maintenance towards her.
However, the court did not agree to it since after perusal of the wife’s application it was found that several instances of mental and physical torture were faced by her when she was in cohabitation with the husband and she had narrated the instances specifically by submitting that she was fed up with the approach of the husband where she had to bear the physical and mental cruelty, which badly affected her health and she had to take shelter with her parents.
Therefore, the court while rejecting the arguments of the husband said,
“None of the above ingredients are established by the applicant-husband as merely saying that he was and is always ready and willing to cohabit is not sufficient ground to absolve himself of the liability to pay maintenance by projecting that without any sufficient reason wife has left his company. The application for maintenance has several grounds which justify the non-applicant No.1 and her children to stay away from the applicant and therefore, I am not at all convinced with the argument of the learned counsel for the applicant that sub-section (4) of Section 125 is applicable in the present case.”
The court then directed the husband to pay the maintenance towards his wife and the children and asked him to clear all the arrears by 31st March 2023.
Case Title: ABC vs XYZ
Statue: Code of Criminal Procedure 1973
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