A Family Court in Mumbai has observed that women who are qualified yet idle, are not entitled to claiming maintenance from their husbands.
While dismissing a qualified dietician’s plea for maintenance from her businessman husband, the court observed that “The wife who is well qualified and claiming maintenance by sitting idle is not entitled to get maintenance. The wife is not entitled to advantage of her own wrong, she cannot harass the husband on the count of maintenance though she is capable to earn.”
But there are some caveats to this that couples heading for splitsville need to keep in mind.
One, qualified as the wife may be, the husband is liable to cough up a monthly maintenance amount if his wife’s financial status is lower than his. For example, if the wife (despite her qualification) earns Rs 50,000 every month, while the husband earns Rs 5 Lakhs, he is bound to pay maintenance that would bring his wife at par with his status.
However, this too is subject to change, given the extent of liabilities the husband has to bear. If he has custody of the children or has loans to pay off or has ailing parents, then the maintenance amount will be significantly lower or can be waived off altogether.
Second, maintenance has to be paid to fulfill three conditions - if the wife has custody of the child, then the husband has to pay maintenance till the male child attains majority; the girl child gets married or the wife remarries or changes her religion.
The alimony amount can vary depending on the financial status of the husband. And once that payment is made, the wife can’t claim a monthly maintenance thereafter.
Of course, Harold Hamm, the chief executive of the oil driller Continental Resources who was embroiled in a bitter divorce, offered to pay his former wife $974.8 million - the biggest divorce payout till date.
Lawyers state that the concept of alimony or a one-time settlement amount paid by the husband to the wife, has still not caught up with most couples in India. On the contrary, most wives seek a monthly maintenance amount from their husbands, in order to keep the ‘income’ flowing.
“In India the concept of Alimony is still foreign. When a couple files for divorce, the wife usually claims a monthly maintenance, which the husband is liable to pay if the financial status of the wife is lower than his.”
- Rajiv Bajaj, Matrimonial Lawyer, Delhi High Court
Given the hole this burns in a man’s pocket, most men will now suffer Hamlet’s Dilemma - To wed or not to wed?
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