Maintenance, only if Husband deserts

A WOMAN who deserts her husband without a valid reason is not eligible for maintenance, a city court has ruled.
Dismissing the maintenance petition filed by Neha (name changed), Metropolitan Magistrate Suchi Shamiri said that a man, whose wife abandons him without any justified reason, is not liable to pay any sum of money as maintenance.

Neha got married to Sanjay (name changed) in January 2005. For the past four years, she had been staying at her parental house stating that her in-laws along with her husband tortured her for dowry.

In her petition, Neha said she was a housewife, and her husband should pay Rs 10,000 per month as expenses.

Contesting against the petition, Sanjay’s counsel JP Bansal contended that Sanjay had already persuaded his wift to come back home several times, but to no avail.

“We had also filed an order from the civil court under section 9 of Hindu Marriage Act in Bagphat. In the order, the judge had directed Neha to return to her matrimonial house, as she had left her husband without a justified reason,” said Bansal.

Section 9 of Hindu Marriage Act states, “When either the husband or the wife has, without reasonable excuse, withdrawn from the society of the othel; the aggrieved party may apply by petition to the district court, for restitution of conjugal rights, and the court, on being satisfied of the truth of the statements made in such petition and that there is no legal ground why the application should not be granted, may decree restitution of conjugal rights accordingly” Referring to the order passed by the civil court, the metropolitan court also dismissed the dowry allegation leveled by Neha, and said that if she was being harassed for dowry, she could have registered a complaint or informed the court.

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