Cuttack, March 25: Orissa High Court has ruled that "alimony is no alms" but "entitlement of a wife for a decent living".

"It is not the take home salary alone which is of significance. Capacity to earn and the actual earning have also to be reckoned with. Savings made by the husband for securing his future life is also significant and has to be counted while determining the amount of alimony," the high court further ruled.

Family court (Bhubaneswar) judge, while passing a decree of divorce and dissolving the marriage between one Dipak Bash and his wife Smitarani Bash on January 21, 2013, had awarded permanent alimony of Rs 16 lakh in favour of the wife.

The husband, a software engineer, had challenged the quantum of alimony in the high court.

The wife had also challenged the same order and prayed for enhancement of permanent alimony from Rs 16 lakh to Rs 55 lakh.

While increasing the amount of alimony to Rs 25 lakh, the division bench of Justice Vinod Prasad and Justice S.K. Sahoo said: "A wife does not require only two morsels a day, but she requires a reasonable amount to meet all her basic needs for a life, which she would have enjoyed had the marital tie would have continued."

"Considering the economic status of the parties, their respective needs, the capacity of the husband to pay and taking note of the fact that the amount of permanent alimony fixed for the wife should be such that she can live in reasonable comfort and simultaneously it should not be excessive and affect the living condition of the husband and considering the young age of the wife, we are of the view that in the facts and circumstances of the case, a direction to the husband to pay Rs 25 lakh as one-time alimony to the wife, would meet the ends of justice," the verdict said.

The court further stated: "The contention that take home salary of the husband is the only relevant criterion is illogical and faulty...Wife's capacity to earn after separation is also a relevant factor to be kept in mind. Similarly, the responsibility, which the wife would have borne had the relationship continued, is also a relevant aspect to be kept in mind. Residence, future possibility of maintaining oneself alone, clothing, food, biological requirements of a female and many further aspects are other significant points, which have to be kept in mind."

While delivering the judgment on March 16, a copy of which was available with The Telegraph today, the court directed the husband to pay the permanent alimony of Rs 25 lakh to wife within six months in addition to the Rs 7 lakh paid during different proceedings in the family court.

The court, however, conceded: "Life is not a straight jacket formula of incidents to be calculable through mathematical precision...What is destined and what will be future life is impossible to predict and therefore to determine amount of alimony to be paid, so that the entitled spouse lives a dignified life, according to the standard of the other side, is an upheaval and arduous task left with the courts to decide more especially because there is no written law on the subject."