The Allahabad High Court has set aside a lower court order directing a man to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, observing that she was earning and had not disclosed her true salary in her affidavit.
Justice Madan Pal Singh allowed a criminal revision petition filed by the man, Ankit Saha. The court noted that the woman had admitted in her affidavit that she was a postgraduate and a web designer working as a senior sales coordinator with a salary of Rs 34,000 per month.
“During cross-examination, she admitted that she was earning Rs 36,000 per month,” the court said, adding that such income “cannot be said to be meagre,” especially when the man had responsibilities toward his aged parents.
The court held that the woman was not entitled to maintenance “as she is an earning lady and able to maintain herself.” The man’s counsel argued she had claimed to be illiterate and unemployed and had not approached the court with “clean hands”.
The court, in its order, said, "Cases of those litigants who have no regard for the truth and those who indulge in suppressing material facts need to be thrown out of the court." It impugned the lower court's February 17 judgment and order, passed by the principal judge of a family court in Gautam Buddh Nagar and allowed the criminal revision petition filed by the man.