The High Court said that the husband who bears the expenses of the second wife cannot deny maintenance to the first wife. The court upheld the order of giving monthly allowance of ₹20,000 to the first wife and rejected the husband’s petition.
Allahabad HC First Wife Maintenance (Prayagraj). In a case related to a family matter, the High Court has ruled that a husband who can support his second wife in joys and sorrows, cannot ignore the maintenance of the first wife. The Allahabad High Court on Thursday, citing a Supreme Court decision, said that the financial capacity of the husband, with which he can maintain the second wife, cannot be a basis for denying the right of maintenance to the first wife. On June 6, the petitioner had challenged the order of the Aligarh Family Court, in which he was ordered to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 20,000 to his first wife. He challenged this order in Allahabad High Court.
Aligarh Family Court’s decision challenged in High Court
The single bench of Justice Harvir Singh of Allahabad High Court dismissed the criminal revision petition of husband Mohammad Asif, observing that when the wife is living separately and is financially dependent on her parents, financial help to her is very important. Asif had filed this petition against the maintenance order of the Family Court. Petitioner Mohammad Asif had on June 6 challenged the order of the Aligarh Family Court, which had ordered him to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 20,000 to his first wife.
Asif had argued in his petition that he works in a hardware shop in Bengaluru and his salary is not enough to pay Rs 20,000 every month to his first wife. He had said in the application that this amount is very high and beyond his financial capacity. Asif’s lawyer also argued that the Aligarh Family Court, while passing the order, ignored the income certificate of 2018, which showed the petitioner’s annual income to be around Rs 83,000. To this the court replied that this certificate is valid only for five years.
Demand for maintenance allowance of Rs 20 thousand
The petition also said that initially the family court had granted an interim maintenance allowance of Rs 2,000, which was later increased to Rs 20,000, which is not only excessive but also against the facts and evidence on record. At the same time, the wife’s lawyer told the court that Asif has married again. This thing was also revealed in the order of June 6. The woman’s lawyer also informed the court that the hardware shop where Asif works is owned by his father and both of them pay taxes. He also told that his hardware shop also has a registered GST number.
The counsel argued that if the petitioner can maintain his second wife, he cannot ignore the first wife. He said that the wife is an unemployed woman, who has no source of income and is financially dependent on her parents. After hearing all these arguments, the Court cited the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Shamima Farooqui vs. Shahid Khan and said that the responsibility of maintenance of a legally married wife cannot be ended on such grounds alone. Saying this, the court rejected the husband’s petition.