No Maintenance For Earning Wife Supreme Court

No Maintenance For Earning Wife Supreme Court

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. 


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