New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that the award of maintenance or permanent alimony should not be a matter of punishment but rather should be a means of ensuring a reasonable standard of living for the wife.
A bench comprising judges Vikram Nath and Prashant Kumar Mishra dissolved the marriage between a man and a woman in 2015 and ordered the husband to pay his wife Rs 20 million as a lump sum.
The court exercised its power under Article 142 of the Constitution to dissolve the marriage on the grounds that the parties had lived together for less than one year and had been living separately for the past nine years.
“This Court has, in a chain of judgments over the years, exercised its inherent power to dissolve a marriage under Article 142 of the Constitution when it finds that the marriage is dead, impracticable, beyond redemption, emotionally destroyed and thus irretrievably broken, even if there is no ground for divorce under the existing law in the facts of the case,” the court stressed.
In this case, the wife, who worked as a human resource manager in a company, demanded a one-time severance payment of Rs 5 to 7 crore, while the husband, who was the vice president of a private bank, agreed to pay only Rs 50 lakh.
After examining the assets, income and liabilities of both parties, the court concluded that the wife's claim was exceptionally high, but that the amount offered by the husband was insufficient in view of the broader maintenance claim.
The Court took into account all the circumstances, social and financial status of the parties, their present employment and future prospects, standard of living and obligations, liabilities and other expenses and fixed the amount of Rs 2 Crore as permanent maintenance to be paid by the husband.
Published on July 17, 2024, 16:17 IST
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