When Can Maintenance Can Be Denied To Wife?: Wife Living Separately Without Sufficient Cause
When Can Maintenance Can Be Denied To Wife?: Wife Living Separately Without Sufficient Cause
In this article I will cover 5 grounds with Judgments holding in the field on the grounds how maintenance can be
denied to the wife.
5. Earning wife
In the Judgement of Smt Teja Bai Vs. Chiddu Armo Jabalpur High Court it was observed
High Court observed “It is evident that petitioner applicant No.1 is wife of respondent. Petitioner-applicant No.1
admitted in her cross-examination that respondent does not do any work due to illness, so she left his house and she
is living in her paternal home with her child. She is not ready to live with respondent. So, it is evident that petitioner
No.1 is living separately from her husband-respondent, without any sufficient reason. Therefore, learned trial court
appreciate each and every fact in this regard so petitioner-application No.1 is not entitled to get any maintenance
from her husband…”
But the interesting thing about this ground is that it is not applicable to divorce wife.
But what about cases in which maintainence is granted after mutual consent divorce
The Judgement of Rohtash Singh vs Smt. Ramendri And Ors on 2 March, 2000
The second ground on which she would not be entitled to Maintenance Allowance is the ground of her refusal to live
with her husband without any sufficient reason. This also presupposes the subsistence of marital relations between
the parties. If the marriage subsists, the wife is under a legal and moral obligation to live with her husband and to
fulfil the marital obligations. She cannot, without any sufficient reason, refuse to live with her husband. “Sufficient
reasons” have been interpreted differently by the High Courts having regard to the facts of indivisual cases. We are
not required to go into that question in the present case as admittedly the marriage between the parties came to an
end on account of a decree for divorce having been passed by the Family Court. Existence of sufficient cause on the
basis of which the respondent could legitimately refuse to live with the petitioner is not relevant for the present case.
In this situation, the only question which survives for consideration is whether a wife against whom a decree for
divorce has been passed on account of her deserting the husband can claim Maintenance Allowance under Section
125 Cr. P.C. and how far can the plea of desertion be treated to be an effective plea in support of the husband’s
refusal to pay her the Maintenance Allowance.
Earning wife
In the Judgement of Chaturbhuj vs Sita Bai on 27 November, 2007
In an illustrative case where wife was surviving by begging, would not amount to her ability to maintain herself. It
can also be not said that the wife has been capable of earning but she was not making an effort to earn. Whether the
deserted wife was unable to maintain herself, has to be decided on the basis of the material placed on record. Where
the personal income of the wife is insufficient she can claim maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C. The test is
whether the wife is in a position to maintain herself in the way she was used to in the place of her husband. In
Bhagwan v. Kamla Devi(AIR 1975 SC 83) it was observed that the wife should be in a position to maintain standard
of living which is neither luxurious nor penurious but what is consistent with status of a family. The expression
“unable to maintain herself” does not mean that the wife must be absolutely destitute before she can apply for
maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C.
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