The Karnataka High Court has said if a man has been leading a life of luxury, his wife and children cannot be left in the lurch.
With this view, it enhanced the maintenance granted to a woman and her 21-year-old son from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,50,000 per month.
“It is not luxury life style that can be demanded by the wife. When the husband is or has been in the realm of luxury lifestyle, the wife and the son, in the considered view of the court, cannot be left in the lurch. If the husband has been living a good life, the wife cannot be asked to lead a life which is lower than that of the husband that too taking care of the needs of herself and education of her son,” a single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna said.
The court allowed the wife’s plea for raising the maintenance amount and rejected the man’s writ petition against the family court’s order for payment of Rs 75,000 per month as maintenance under the Hindu Marriage Act. It relied upon assets and liabilities statements of parties qua their qualification as mandated under the Supreme Court’s judgement in case of ‘Rajnesh Vs Neha and Another’ (2021).
Referring to the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Reema Salkan Vs Sumer Singh Salkan (2019), the bench said due regard should be paid to certain relevant factors like social status of the parties and the kind of life that the wife and son were living while they were all staying together.
It also cited the SC’s judgment in case of Shamima Farooqui Vs Shahid Khan, in which it was held that sustenance of a woman does not and cannot mean mere survival as a woman, constrained to leave the matrimonial house, should not be allowed to feel that she has fallen from the grace, so the quantum of maintenance should be qua the life she was leading with her husband.
In the instant case, the court noted up to March 2022, the earning of the wife per month is Rs 47,736 while the expenditure of the husband per month, even according to his indication, is Rs 11 lakh.
“If the husband can maintain fleet of cars and claim that a loan amount of Rs 7,72,000 goes for the business purpose towards a loan that is taken after initiation of several proceedings by the wife against the husband, in the considered view of this court, it would not absolve the husband to maintain the wife and the son,” the bench said.
The husband, on his part, contended that he had business loan of Rs 2.43 crore and is repaying Rs 7.72 lakh per month as EMI.
“The business loan of Rs 2.43 crore was obtained by the husband on June 01, 2022. Therefore, no fault can be found with the aggrandisement of business by taking loan from financial institutions. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that he has a wife and a son who has grown and is pursuing his education to be maintained as well,” the bench said.
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