No Maintenance For Earning Wife Supreme Court
KUSUM BHATIA vs SAGAR SETHI
1. Divorce entitles the wife to get alimony
if she cannot maintain herself but what about working professionals?
Can a woman get alimony if she has a source of income? The answer is
yes; a working woman is eligible to get alimony depending on her income
and living conditions.
2. Earlier working women in India
were not given any kind of alimony or maintenance but with the change
in time and subsequent amendments in the law, alimony or maintenance are
provided to a working wife under certain circumstances.
3. When we say a working woman,
we consider someone who is economically independent and financially
able to satisfy her needs but sometimes in cases of married working
women do not earn enough to satisfy their necessities and partially
depend on their husbands. These women are eligible to claim a certain
amount of alimony.
4. The main reason behind maintenance to a working wife is that a wife faces many problems after leaving her matrimonial home and is deprived of many comforts. So, the monetary
comfort in the form of alimony gives her some consolation.
5. After a divorce, women have
to go through a lot of difficulties without the support she used to have
in her matrimonial home. Therefore, the husband has to maintain his
wife and even if the wife is employed she has the right to the same
standard of living she earlier used to enjoy.
6. Section 125 of the criminal procedure code
states that if the spouse cannot maintain herself because of reasonable
situations, then it is the duty of the husband to provide her with enough
alimony to live a life of dignity.
7. The Supreme Court of India
held that any woman can claim maintenance despite her efforts to earn a
monthly income, if the amount earned, is not enough to satisfy her
unavoidable necessities.
8. The Supreme Court had also
clarified that the expression ‘unable to maintain herself’ does not
require a woman to be destitute for money before she can claim alimony
or maintenance.
9. In a few more situations like with the husband being jobless does not work as an excuse to avoid alimony. A working wife can rightfully claim maintenance for the child
from the husband.
10. With the change in time,
the laws dealing with maintenance and alimony had changed and therefore a
working woman in India is also entitled to alimony depending upon her
living condition after divorce so she can maintain the lifestyle she was
used to in her matrimonial house.
This article is written for educational purposes, this is not for any kind of advertisement of the writer.
This article is written for educational purposes, this is not for any kind of advertisement of the writer.