Hyderabad Court orders NRI husband to pay Rs 50,000 pm maintenance to working wife in a divorce case

A Hyderabad family court has asked an NRI husband to pay an interim maintenance of Rs 50,000(Fifty Thousand) every month to his wife under section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act from the date of the petition till the disposal of the main divorce case.

The woman had approached the court seeking divorce in a domestic violence case and interim maintenance relief from her estranged husband. She had claimed herself to be a household lady, without any source of income.

The husband contested that the wife is well qualified and currently working in an MNC company with a monthly salary of more than 1 lakh, so she does not need immediate additional support and produced wife’s income tax statements as proof. He said that they do not have any children so there was no financial liability to consider and that he was living in a much more expensive country than India.

However, ruling against the husband, the court was of a view that though the wife is doing a job as per documents filed by the learned counsel for the husband, her salary is less than the husband, and as such to live commensurate with the status of the husband it is considered fit to allow the petition. The reason for the trouble of marriage is a matter of contest and will be decided in the main case.