Section 24 HMA | MP HC Refuses Interim Maintenance, Cites Wife's Unsound Mind Allegation Against Husband

The Madhya Pradesh High Court's Gwalior Bench has refused to grant interim maintenance to a woman locked in a matrimonial dispute with her husband since barely a year into their marriage, holding that her own record before various courts, coupled with an Ayushman Card that already covers her cancer treatment, left no room to award her any relief under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

A division bench of Justice G. S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla heard an appeal filed by the wife against a Family Court, Morena order of December 2021 dismissing her maintenance application. The couple married in 2008, their second marriage each, and trouble began almost immediately, with husband filing a divorce petition in 2009 that he later withdrew.

A joint petition for divorce by mutual consent, filed in 2013, was also dismissed for non-compliance with agreed terms, and a challenge to that dismissal failed before the High Court too. The husband filed a fresh divorce petition in 2014, again withdrawn, before filing a third one in 2016, during which appellant wife sought interim maintenance.

Before the trial court, the wife claimed she was harassed for dowry and thrown out of her matrimonial home, and that her husband ran a medical store earning Rs 50,000 a month, entitling her to Rs 20,000 monthly. The husband contested this, stating that he married the appellant after his first wife died of cancer, but that she began threatening him with a dowry case soon after and later deserted him, taking away valuables. He denied running any medical store and claimed the appellant earned at least Rs 30,000 a month as an advocate, a claim she disputes, maintaining she is not a legal practitioner.

Appearing before the High Court, appellant wife's counsel Manish Sharma pressed for enhanced maintenance of Rs 15,00,000, citing fresh medical records showing cancer treatment at a private hospital. The bench was not persuaded, noting the documents themselves referred to her Ayushman Card number. "This shows her entitlement to the medical benefit available under Ayushmaan Card," the order stated, adding that appellant had not disclosed "what financial constraints, she is still facing in her medical treatment, despite holding the Ayushmaan Card."

The bench also flagged an admission appellant made during cross-examination in March 2023, recording that the marriage had never been consummated. "Thus, the parties to an unconsummated marriage have spent a significant period of their lives in court litigation and are still warring factions," the order noted.

Tracing the litigation history, the court observed the appellant had approached courts repeatedly under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Domestic Violence Act and Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, without success in any of them. It recorded that respondent had already paid her Rs 7,50,000 as permanent alimony under the 2013 consent petition, after which she had refused to go through with the divorce. The bench also noted that respondent had been acquitted in the dowry harassment case she filed, while her three domestic violence complaints, the last one included, had all failed, with the most recent one dismissed as not maintainable.

The court further pointed to an amendment appellant made to her pleadings alleging that respondent was of unsound mind, observing that this claim, if anything, undercut her own case. "Generally, a wife cannot claim maintenance from a husband of unsound mind, unless it is established that his mental illness does not cause any functional incapacity to earn an income," the bench held, adding that her "own pleadings have placed her claim in jeopardy."

Counsel Surendra Singh Parihar, for respondent husband, argued appellant had never been willing to see the marriage through, and despite receiving permanent alimony, continued to resist the divorce.

Dismissing the appeal, the bench held appellant was "not entitled to any interim maintenance under section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act," upholding the Family Court's order and closing the door, for now, on her plea for financial support.

Case Title: Smt. Bharti Gupta v. Vishnu Gupta

Date of Order: July 21, 2026

Bench: Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla