A Delhi court has rejected a plea by a man claiming he cannot pay interim maintenance to his estranged wife since he did not have any income. The court noted that the company where he worked as the Director has Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador.
The court concluded this showed that the petitioner-husband was a “man of means”.
Case:
A woman had charged her husband of alleged domestic violence, claiming she had been living separately and did not have any means of livelihood.
Her complaint filed under Section 12 of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, sought various reliefs besides the interim maintenance. The trial court had granted her monthly maintenance of Rs 30,000 while assessing the man’s monthly income to be Rs 1 lakh.
The husband challenged this trial court maintenance order to his estranged wife, claiming he had “nil” income and lived on charity.
Submissions by Wife
The wife’s counsel placed on record a wrapper of the product that belonged to a company, where her husband was a director. The wrapper showed Indian Cricket Captain Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador of that product.
Therefore, the wife implied that the husband was held to be a “man of means” having a large business and appeared to be “impersonating himself as a pauper” to defeat the “legitimate maintenance claim” of the estranged wife.
The woman, on the contrary, contended that her estranged husband’s income ran into millions. She alleged manipulation on his part to show he was not earning enough.
Arguments by Husband
The husband argued that his wife was not entitled for maintenance as she was educated and having considerable income from her business.
Delhi Court
Additional Sessions Judge Anuj Agrawal who was hearing the appeal found that the husband was indeed a director of the company that manufactured a product promoted by the cricketer. The court held,
This court can take judicial notice of the fact that the brand ambassador of said brand is Virat Kohli, the test cricket captain of Team India.
Therefore, it looks highly improbable that a company which is running into great losses (as claimed by appellant), was in a position to afford a celebrity of such stature for advertisement of its product.
The Court underlined a tendency to hide the true income by the parties in cases such as the one at hand. It observed,
It appears that in the instant case also, appellant/husband withheld his true income from the court. It cannot be believed that a person who was capable of supporting a family by getting married, would all of a sudden become devoid of all sources of income.
The order noted that once the monthly income of the husband had been assessed at Rs 1 lakh per month, the interim maintenance of Rs 30,000 cannot be “unjustifiable or exorbitant” by any stretch of the imagination. The maintenance order was thus upheld.
MDO Take –
- Maintenance laws in India are totally flawed and favour only and only the women
- Interim maintenance is granted basis income of the husband, without even deliberating into the facts of the case
- Thus, an allegedly cruel or adulterous wife will also be awarded interim maintenance until the pendency of the case
- Once the monthly maintenance starts, most women stop attending court dates or take adjournments only to drag and delay the final arguments indefinitely
- They have nothing to lose as they are legally paid tax free income month on month, irrespective of findings in the matter
- Going by the track record of our judiciary and the timelines for conclusion of any case, each matrimonial proceeding may take a minimum of 8-10 years in the lower courts and subsequently another decade by the time Supreme Court gives its verdict
- The term interim has no fixed timeline and is grossly misused by women to avail life long income without divorce
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