Allahabad High Court
Pawan Sharma vs Varuni Sharma on 13 July, 2022
Bench: Sunita Agarwal, Sadhna Rani (Thakur)
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 39
Case :- FIRST APPEAL No. - 528 of 2022
Appellant :- Pawan Sharma
Respondent :- Varuni Sharma
Counsel for Appellant :- Pramod Kumar Shukla,R.P. Tiwari
Hon'ble Mrs. Sunita Agarwal,J.
Hon'ble Mrs. Sadhna Rani (Thakur),J.
This is husband's appeal seeking to challenge the order dated 4.5.2022 passed under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act' 1955 (hereinafter referred as Act' 1955) , whereby Rs.5,000/- per month has been awarded to the respondent-wife as interim maintenance. In addition to the above, Rs.5,000/- as the cost of the proceeding and Rs.200/- as traveling allowance for each date fixed has been awarded by the family court. There is no dispute about the fact that the appellant herein is an employee in the Railways and his monthly salary is Rs.60,000/- per month.
The salary slip for the month of March, 2022 was taken note of by the family court and it was recorded that after the deductions, Rs.37,000/- per month is being earned by the appellant as monthly income whereas the respondent-wife is unemployed. Rs.5,000/- towards monthly maintenance has been awarded after the consideration of the fact that the respondent-wife is getting Rs.7,500/- in a proceeding under the Domestic Violence Act and Rs.5,000/- has been awarded under Section 125 Cr.P.C.
The submission of the learned counsel for the appellant is that though the family court has adjusted Rs.7,500/- per month in the total amount of the monthly maintenance but the amount of Rs.5,000/- awarded to the respondent-wife under Section 125 Cr.P.C. has not been adjusted. The respondent-wife, therefore, is not entitled to any maintenance under Section 24 of the Act' 1955. It is further submitted by the learned counsel for the appellant that the couple has no issue and the wife has sufficient income for maintaining herself from the interim maintenance having been accorded under the aforesaid two proceedings.
Having noticed the above submissions, we find that the total amount of maintenance which has already been accorded to the respondent-wife under the aforesaid two proceedings, comes to Rs. 12,500/- per month, which cannot be said to be sufficient in these days of inflation. The appellant is getting Rs.37,000/- per month, in hand, after deductions. On the quantum of the interim maintenance awarded by the family court, we may note that the respondent-wife may have failed in marriage but she has to maintain herself to the status of her husband. The amount of Rs.5,000/-, which would be in addition to Rs.12,500/- having been accorded to the respondent-wife in other proceedings, cannot be said to be excessive. No interference, therefore, is required in the order passed by the Family Court, Jhansi for grant of Rs. 5,000/- as interim maintenance in the instant proceeding.
As regards the submission of the learned counsel for the appellant that the Family Court, Jhansi has erred in granting interim maintenance to the respondent-wife from the date of filing of application i.e. 14.07.2016, suffice it to say that the issue is no longer res integra. There is catena of decisions of the Apex Court and this Court, holding that the wife is entitled for interim maintenance under Section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act from the date of the application, the recent one being the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Rajnesh vs Neha (2021) 2 SCC 324. The challenge to the order of the Family Court dated 4.5.2022 in the present appeal on this count, therefore, cannot be sustained.
However, the order passed by the Family Court, Jhansi is modified to the extent that the interim maintenance awarded to the respondent-wife shall be paid by the appellant by transmitting the maintenance amount in the saving bank account of the respondent-wife by 10th of each month, regularly, from August, 2022. For the arrears of interim maintenance awarded under the order impugned, the payment shall be made within a period of two months from today, by transmitting the total amount of arrears of interim maintenance with effect from the date of application i.e. 11.7.2016 till July, 2022, in the saving bank account of the respondent-wife. The amount awarded towards the cost of the proceeding i.e. Rs.5,000/- shall also be paid by the same mode by 10th of August, 2022. Any default in making the above payments would amount to non-compliance of the order of this Court.
Subject to the above observations and the directions, with the modification of the order dated 4.5.2022 to the above extent, we dismiss the appeal at the admission stage itself.
Order Date :- 13.7.2022
Kamarjahan
