HC Opines: Maintaining Wife and Children is social and lawful duty of Husband, Read Judgment 

The Gujarat High Court in Shripal Raja Rajendrakumar Shah v. State of Gujarat stated that the husband must maintain his wife and provide financial support to her and their children, and they would be entitled to the same standard of living that they enjoyed living with them. The husband cannot shrink from his responsibility.

Facts:

The marriage of the parties was solemnized, and they were blessed with a daughter. Disputes arose between the parties, and petitions for custody, divorce, maintenance, and restitution were filed. In a maintenance petition, the family court allowed the application of wife/Respondent 2, directing the applicant to pay Rs. 10,000 per month to respondent 2 and Rs. 5,000 per month to respondent 3. Aggrieved, the applicant moved to the high court.

Contentions of Applicant:

The Court has not considered various pieces of evidence to prove the income of the applicant. The applicant placed on record evidence of income that was much less than what was claimed by the respondent. Further, the Court has also failed to take note of the fact that respondent 3 was residing with the applicant only and the maintenance granted to them was unnecessary. Reliance was placed on “Rajnish v. Neha” (2021) 2 SCC 324.

Court’s Observation:

The Court analyzed the object of Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as “Cr.P.C.”) and mentioned the necessary conditions, which are: a. The husband has sufficient means; b. He “neglects” to maintain his wife, who is unable to maintain herself. The court also highlighted that maintenance is awarded based on the financial capacity of the husband and other relevant factors and that proceedings under Section 125 of the Cr.P.C. are summary in nature. 

The court went on to observe as follows: “The husband must maintain his wife and provide financial support to her and their children and he cannot shirk his responsibility as husband as well as father to maintain his legally wedded wife and children, which is his social and lawful duty towards them and the wife and children would be entitled to the same standard of living, that they were enjoying while living with them.”

The Decision of the Court:

Placing reliance on the said lines, the court concluded that the family court rightly considered the income of the applicant and rightly granted the maintenance amount to respondents 2 and 3. The court thus rejected the application and upheld the order of the trial court.

Case Title:  Shripal Raja Rajendrakumar Shah V. State of Gujarat 

Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Samir J. Dave

Case No.:  R/Criminal Revision Application No. 213 of 2022

Advocate for Petitioner: Mr Pratik Y Jasan and Urvesh M Prajapati

Advocate for Respondent: Mr RC Kodekar, App

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