Woman divorced due to adultery cannot claim maintenance: court
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Bilaspur: A woman divorced on the grounds of adultery is disqualified from claiming maintenance from her former husband, the Chhattisgarh High Court ruled. The court quashed a petition by the woman as well as an order by a family court granting her Rs 4,000 per month, PTI reported.
In its order dated May 9, Justice Arvind Kumar Verma observed that under section 125(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), a wife living in adultery is not entitled to maintenance.
The case involved a couple from Raipur who married in 2019 under Hindu customs. The wife left her husband’s house in March 2021, citing mental and physical harassment. She later filed a maintenance suit in the Raipur family court alleging cruelty and suspicion on the part of her husband.
In response, the husband filed for divorce, alleging that his wife was engaged in an adulterous relationship with his younger brother. He also claimed she had threatened to implicate him in a false case when confronted.
The family court granted a decree for divorce on September 8, 2023, citing the wife’s adultery, and later ordered the husband on November 6 to pay her Rs 4,000 in monthly maintenance. The wife subsequently sought an increase to Rs 20,000.
Challenging the maintenance order, the husband’s counsel argued that the family court had ignored the statutory bar under section 125(4) CrPC.
The counsel told the HC that his client’s wife is not entitled to maintenance as she was found to be in an adulterous relationship with her husband’s younger brother, which has been legally proved before the competent court and a decree for divorce was granted in the husband’s favour.
The maintenance order was passed without considering the statutory provision of section 125(4) that no wife shall be entitled to receive interim maintenance from her husband.
Specifically, a wife cannot claim maintenance if she is living in adultery, refuses to live with her husband without a sufficient reason, or if they are living separately by mutual consent, he said.
The High Court agreed, stating that the divorce decree, based on the wife’s adultery, constituted sufficient proof of her disqualification from receiving maintenance.