HC Says Earning Wife with ₹80 Lakh Flat Not Entitled to Husband’s Maintenance
The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a woman earning ₹73,000 per month and owning a flat worth over ₹80 lakh is not entitled to claim maintenance from her husband.
Justice Saurabh Lavanai set aside a family court’s earlier order directing the husband to pay ₹15,000 monthly maintenance to his wife. The Court, however, upheld the order granting ₹25,000 per month to the couple’s minor child.
The case was filed under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The husband, also a software engineer, earns around ₹1.75 lakh per month. The family court had earlier directed him to pay ₹15,000 per month to his wife and ₹25,000 per month to their child, effective from May 2023.
While hearing the husband’s revision plea, the High Court noted that the wife, employed with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), earns ₹73,000 monthly and has purchased a flat worth ₹80.43 lakh in Lucknow. The Court observed that her income is sufficient for her own upkeep and she cannot claim additional support.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rajnesh v Neha, the Court stated that although a wife’s income is not an automatic bar to maintenance, the key question is whether her income is adequate for her standard of living. Since the wife’s financial position showed that she could sustain herself, maintenance from her husband was not justified.
The Court therefore partly allowed the husband’s petition: the wife’s maintenance order was cancelled, but the child’s entitlement of ₹25,000 per month was confirmed.
