The Delhi High Court recently ruled that a wife cannot be denied maintenance merely because she applied after her husband sought divorce, while directing him to pay ?2 lakh per month to his wife and minor daughter.

A bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar passed the order on August 29, after hearing an appeal filed by a woman against a 2019 family court order that had denied her maintenance from her husband but granted ?25,000 per month for the couple’s minor daughter.

The couple got married in 2009, and their daughter was born in 2011. The wife had worked for about three and a half years before marriage and later moved to Singapore, where her husband was employed and where she too worked for some time. "However, she did not work after giving birth to her daughter," the court noted, adding that she migrated to India four months after the child's birth.

The husband, however, was then earning around ?10 lakh per month.

While denying her maintenance, the family court held that she “does not want to work” and that, being a post-graduate diploma holder in business administration, she was “capable of working”.

Rejecting that reasoning, the High Court observed: “Such a conclusion drawn by the court is not correct, particularly when the wife was taking care of the daughter and there is no material to show that after returning from Singapore, she had the opportunity to work but declined".

“The role of the mother of a newly born child is significantly important because the child needs love, care and constant supervision on the part of one of the parent. She took care of the child single-handedly,” the bench added.

The court also held that the timing of the maintenance application — filed after the husband sought divorce — could not be a ground to deny relief, as argued by the husband's counsel.

“The submission that the appellant filed the application only after the respondent filed a petition seeking divorce, cannot be a valid ground to deny maintenance, particularly in view of the fact that an application under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) is maintainable during the pendency of the Petition,” it ruled.

Further, it directed the husband to pay maintenance of ?2 lakh per month for both the wife and the daughter from the date of the application.