New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has clarified that permanent alimony under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) is intended as a tool of social justice, rather than a mechanism for financial equalisation, and cannot be granted to a financially independent spouse.
A division bench, consisting of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, made this point while hearing a petition filed by a woman officer of the Indian Railways Traffic Service, who sought permanent alimony and compensation from her husband, an advocate, after their divorce, TNIE reported.
The couple, who married in 2010, reportedly lived together for only a year before separating. Their marriage was dissolved by a family court in 2023 on the grounds of cruelty. The husband had alleged mental and physical cruelty and public humiliation by his wife, while she denied these claims and counterclaimed cruelty by him.
The family court had noted that the woman had demanded Rs 50 lakh as part of a settlement in exchange for agreeing to the divorce, as recorded in her affidavit and reaffirmed during cross-examination. Her request for alimony was therefore rejected.
On appeal, the woman challenged both the finding of cruelty and the refusal to grant maintenance. However, the High Court upheld the family court’s decision, indicating that the judicial discretion under Section 25 of the HMA must be exercised carefully and cannot be invoked to award alimony to a spouse who is financially self-sufficient.