4 min readLucknowJul 25, 2026 04:36 PM IST
Taking strong note of non-compliance with court orders regarding paying maintenance to claimants, the Allahabad High Court Friday directed family courts and gram nyayalayas across Uttar Pradesh to ensure employers/departments transfer the maintenance amount to the account of the wife from the husband’s salary and initiate legal action of property attachment or imprisonment in case of insufficient funds in his bank account.
A single bench of Justice Praveen Kumar Giri, in its order, fixed responsibility of the judges of the family courts and gram nyayalayas (village courts), stating: “If these directions not complied with in letter and spirit by the Presiding Officers of the Family Courts, as well as the Gram Nyayalayas of the State of UP, the same is liable to attract disciplinary, as well as contempt proceedings as per law.”
The court issued these directions after hearing a revision petition by a woman who had been filing revision applications in a family court requesting direction to her husband to give her the maintenance amount continuously every month.
The woman filed a revision petition in the high court after she did not get relief from the family court concerned in Jaunpur district. She prayed through her counsel, requesting direction to her husband to pay the maintenance of Rs 5,000 from April 2025 onwards as per the order dated March 4, 2023, passed by the Additional Principal Judge, Family Court-I, Jaunpur.
The order was passed after hearing the woman’s application filed on May 5, 2018, seeking grant of maintenance amount from her husband.
While hearing the woman’s revision petition, the bench had sought an explanation from the family court in Jaunpur and had also directed the husband to file a counter affidavit in April.
Despite several reminders, no one appeared on behalf of the husband.
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In its order, the bench of Justice Giri stated that it cannot be ignored that the maintenance order dated March 4, 2023, continues to remain in force and the husband remains under an obligation to pay maintenance to his wife.
The bench directed the husband to clear the arrears of maintenance till today and continue to pay the monthly maintenance amount to the revisionist-wife in compliance with the order dated March 4, 2023.
Direction to family courts
Further, the bench directed all the presiding officers of the family courts and gram nyayalayas in Uttar Pradesh to ensure strict compliance with its directions. The key directions follow as:
— Successive execution applications are not required to be filed for receiving monthly maintenance.
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— While passing or executing maintenance orders, the trial court shall direct the opposite party/person, liable to pay maintenance, to deposit the monthly maintenance amount directly into the verified bank account of the applicant-claimant.
— Wherever the opposite party is in salaried employment, the trial court shall also direct the department/employer concerned to deduct the maintenance or arrears from the salary/remuneration/honorarium of the opposite party-employee and transfer the same directly into the verified bank account of the applicant-claimant.
— In the event of refusal of payment of maintenance or non-payment of maintenance due to insufficiency of funds, the trial court shall recover the amount by attaching the property of the opposite party/person, liable to pay maintenance, in accordance with law and if the attached property is insufficient to clear the unpaid arrears of maintenance, an order of simple imprisonment may be directed to be executed for a term which may extend to one month for each month’s default or until payment.
The bench also directed the district administration and the police to cooperate in the matter and asked the Registrar (Compliance) to transmit a copy of this order to the Judicial Training and Research Institute in Lucknow for the academic purposes of judicial officers.
