Jabalpur (MP): A woman has the right to know how much her husband earns, Madhya Pradesh High Court has observed.

The bench of Justices S.K. Seth and Nandita Dubey made the observation while hearing a petition from Sunita Jain, who had sought a higher maintenance from her estranged husband, Pawan Kumar Jain.

Counsel for the petitioner, K.C. Ghildiyal, said Sunita had pleaded that Pawan was a senior official with the state-run BSNL and drew a high salary while she was given a monthly maintenance of just Rs 7,000.

After a trial court rejected Sunita's plea that her husband produce his pay slip, she filed a plea under the Right to Information Act to get his salary details.

The issue reached the Central Information Commission, which, in an order dated July 27, 2007, asked the central public information officer of BSNL to furnish the details of Pawan's monthly salary, Ghildiyal said.

The husband, however, challenged the Central Information Commission order before a single bench of the high court, which set aside the order in March 2015.

Ghildiyal said Sunita then moved a division bench of the high court, which observed that a wife could not be considered a third party and denied this information.

While setting aside the single bench order, the division bench allowed the writ appeal and upheld the Central Information Commission order.