Wife’s income, employment no ground for denial: Jharkhand High Court upholds Rs 6 lakh alimony

“So far as the self-employment of the respondent/plaintiff/wife is concerned, it is a generally accepted legal principle that a wife’s income or employment does not automatically disqualify her from receiving alimony, it is not an absolute rule,” the Jharkhand High Court held, adding, “Courts determine maintenance based on the wife’s actual need compared to the lifestyle she enjoyed in her matrimonial home.”

Allegations of cruelty

The appellant’s wife had filed a matrimonial suit alleging that she was subjected to physical and mental cruelty. She alleged that dowry demands for a four-wheeler were made and that she was assaulted after objecting to the husband’s alleged illicit relationship with his sister-in-law.

She further alleged that despite a compromise in an earlier criminal case, the husband again subjected her to torture, due to which her pregnancy was terminated.

The husband denied the allegations and claimed it was a love marriage with no dowry exchange. He alleged that his wife pressured him to sever ties with his family and later terminated her pregnancy without his knowledge.

The family court allowed the suit filed by the wife and dissolved the marriage between the couple while directing the husband to pay an amount of Rs 6 lakh towards alimony. Feeling aggrieved by this order, the husband moved the Jharkhand High Court.

‘Wife’s testimony consistent, detailed’

• The wife’s testimony before the family court was consistent and detailed, narrating specific incidents of cruelty, confinement and assault, the Jharkhand High Court noted.
• It said the allegations of an illicit relationship, physical violence, and termination of pregnancy owing to assault were grave in nature.
• The compromise entered into before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Dhanbad, and the appellant’s subsequent conduct resuming the cruelty, corroborates the woman’s assertion that the “matrimonial bond had broken down”, the court observed.
• It also noted that the husband merely denied the allegations without producing cogent evidence to dislodge his wife’s testimony.
• The Jharkhand High Court, therefore, held that the wife successfully established her case of cruelty and dowry demand against the husband.
• The court said the allegation of cruelty raised against the appellant-husband has been proved satisfactorily and the appellant failed to establish the perversity in the family court’s findings.
• The Jharkhand High Court, therefore, dismissed the husband’s appeal and upheld the family court’s order dissolving the couple’s marriage and directing payment of Rs 6 lakh alimony.