Wife Not Entitled to Maintenance If Her Actions Ruined Husband’s Earning Capacity: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a wife cannot seek maintenance from her husband if her own actions, or those of her family, have made the husband incapable of earning a living.

The observation was made by a Bench led by Justice Lakshmi Kant Shukla while dismissing a woman’s plea challenging a trial court’s refusal to grant her interim maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Court noted that the husband, a homeopathic doctor, had become physically incapable of earning after suffering a serious gunshot injury. According to the records, the injury was caused in an alleged attack by the wife’s father and brother in April 2019. During the incident, the wife’s brother allegedly fired at the husband, leaving a pellet lodged in his spinal cord.

Medical reports placed before the court showed that removing the pellet could lead to paralysis. Due to this injury, the husband was unable to sit for long hours, lost his clinic, and became unemployed.

The High Court observed that while it is generally a husband’s duty to maintain his wife, this principle cannot be applied mechanically in every case. The Court said that if a wife, by her own conduct or by the actions of her family, causes or contributes to her husband’s inability to earn, she cannot later take advantage of that situation to claim maintenance.

The Bench emphasised that granting maintenance in such circumstances would cause grave injustice to the husband and that courts cannot ignore the realities reflected in the record.

Rejecting the wife’s argument that the husband still had sufficient means, the Court held that his earning capacity had been completely destroyed due to the criminal act allegedly committed by the wife’s side.

In view of these facts, the High Court upheld the trial court’s order refusing interim maintenance and dismissed the wife’s revision petition.