Jharkhand High Court orders man to pay wife Rs 30 lakh alimony for lifestyle ‘she was used to’

Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad noted that the estranged couple had been married for three years and the family court granted a divorce in 2023.

The high court observed that while the husband also has to survive and has other liabilities and responsibilities, it remains his duty to ensure that the wife can maintain a standard of living similar to what she enjoyed during the subsistence of the marriage.

The high court was hearing the appeal filed by the estranged wife challenging the September 2023 order, which allowed the husband’s request for dissolution of marriage by decree of divorce on the grounds of cruelty. 

3 years of marriage, cruelty and divorce 

The marriage between the parties was solemnised in July 2018 as per Hindu rites and customs. The husband claimed that only a few members from the wife’s side were present at the wedding, which raised doubts in his mind, though he chose to proceed with the marriage.

He further stated that when he and his family sought the bidai (departure of the bride), the wife and her family refused repeatedly for months and even years without any valid reason.

According to him, when attempts were made to bring the wife to the matrimonial home, her family allegedly imposed a condition that he must live as a “gharjamai” (resident son-in-law) and sever ties with his own family.

Despite this, he claimed that he made efforts to save the marriage. Eventually, after several panchayats, the wife came to the matrimonial home in January 2019.

It was stated that his mother handed over the family traditional ornaments to his wife (to be kept in her custody as per family ritual but it was found that she was quite apathetic towards her in-laws and even refused to discharge any duty. 

It was also mentioned by the husband that his wife is a lady of a bad temper and she would pick up fights with anybody and everybody in his family without any rhyme or reason, and get agitated and annoyed at trivial issues.

He also added that the wife was avoiding any form of intimacy with him and was regularly avoiding him, and later they found that she was suffering from an incurable, virulent form of leprosy. 

Subsequently, the husband claimed that when his father-in-law came, his wife left with her father, taking all her articles along with gifts and the family ornaments so left in her custody by his mother, without any information about the same to either him or his family members.  

He has further asserted that the continuous mental torture and social humiliation affected the health of his mother day by day, and she was ever treated medically, and subsequently she died in October 2021. 

The trial court concluded that the husband was able to prove and substantiate the factum of cruelty meted out to him by the wife and was entitled to get a decree of divorce, against which the instant appeal has been preferred by the wife. 

It was claimed by the wife that her husband had already solemnised a second marriage and was seeking permanent alimony as a one-time settlement. 

‘3 years of marriage, Rs 30 lakh alimony’

• The Jharkhand High Court noted that the marriage between the estranged couple got married in 2018 and the husband filed the suit for divorce in the year 2021, after three years of marriage, on the grounds of cruelty, desertion and virulent disease. 
• The court noted that the husband has pleaded that his earnings are very meagre by giving tuition to some of the students. 
• However, the court took note of the fact that he had attached the income tax return for the three assessment years in which the gross turnover or gross receipts had been shown to range from Rs 19 -32 lakh.
• The Jharkhand High Court held that the husband has a constant source of income, but the estranged wife is to survive on the amount of interest to be received from the amount of permanent alimony.
• The court also mentioned that the future inflation, etc., is also required to be kept in mind before allowing the permanent alimony. 
• The court stated that the life expectancy of a female in India is approximately 70 years, and therefore, the permanent alimony is to be calculated for the next 33 years, as the wife is 37 years of age. 
• The Jharkhand High Court concluded that the calculation suggests that the permanent alimony will be approximately Rs 30 lakh. 
• The high court pointed out that the concept of permanent alimony has been enacted with the object of removing the hardship of the wife or the husband with no independent income sufficient for living or meeting litigation expenses.
• It was further added that such maintenance can be denied if there is proof of having sexual intercourse outside of wedlock. 
• The Jharkhand High Court further added that no arithmetic formula can be adopted for the grant of permanent alimony to the wife. 
• The court added that, however, the status of parties, their respective social needs, the financial capacity of the husband and other obligations must be taken into account. 

Arguments

Appearing for the wife, advocate Sumir Prasad argued that though his client intends to reside with his husband, since he has now solemnised a second marriage and is not ready to keep her, as such, the only question remains for alimony. 

He added that the wife has no source of income to survive. 

Representing the husband, advocate Lukesh Kumar submitted that he also does not want to go into the merit of the issue and mentioned that the husband is ready to make payment of Rs 7500 per month to the wife in the form of maintenance or permanent alimony.