An Indian Airlines pilot is paying Rs 50,000 a month as maintenance allowances to his wife and child to carry out a court order. This is the highest sum paid by a husband after the revision of the Maintenance Allowances Act. Earlier, separated wives were entitled to only Rs 500 per month from their husband as maintenance allowances. After the revision of the act, a ceiling was fixed for the allowance.

Arup Das, judge of the family court for Calcutta district, had directed Sanjay Kapoor, the pilot, to pay Rs 50,000 per month for the maintenance of his wife, Payel, and one-year-old child. Sanjay filed an appeal in Calcutta High Court against the family court order. But the high court did not intervene and dismissed Sanjay’s plea.

Even after the high court’s decision, Sanjay did not pay maintenance allowances to his wife and daughter.

The family court then asked the Indian Airlines authorities to deduct the amount from the pilot’s salary and send it to Payel. On Tuesday, Payel received a cheque from the airlines authority for August 2003. On the same day, Sanjay also sent a cheque for Rs 50,000 to his wife as maintenance allowances for July.

Pradip Roy, Payel’s counsel, said when the maintenance law was being revised the husband’s salary was considered while fixing the monthly allowances. Sanjay Kapoor’s monthly salary is Rs 3 lakh. Roy said Sanjay and Payel married in 2000 and they lived in Bangalore.

Trouble started after Sanjay’s parents came to stay with them. Ultimately, Payel was forced to leave her husband’s house. She came to stay with her parents in Calcutta. Then she filed a divorce case in the family court.