The right to maintenance is a fundamental right under Article 21, taking precedence over statutory rights of creditors.

ORDER :

1. Leave granted.

2. The appellant-husband has laid challenge to the order dated 12.09.2022, passed by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad, whereby the respondent-wife has been granted maintenance at the rate of Rs.1,00,000/-(Rupees One Lakh) per month whereas both the children have been granted maintenance of Rs.50,000/-(Rupees Fifty Thousand) each per month. It may be seen that the Family Court, Surat had previously granted a paltry amount of Rs.6,000/-per month to the wife and Rs.3,000/-per month to each of the children. Thereafter, the aggrieved wife and children approached the High Court through a Revision Application, which was allowed vide the impugned order.

3. While enhancing maintenance, the High Court took notice of the fact that the appellant is a businessman, who owns a diamond factory. The status of the appellant was briefly highlighted, referring to the fact that he had employed a Manager in his office to look after day-to-day affairs. The High Court has also drawn adverse inference against the appellant as he failed to produce income-tax documents, despite admittedly being an income-tax assessee. The appellant, however, for reasons best known to him, did not produce his income-tax return despite a direction issued by the High Court to that effect. It is in this backdrop that the High Court accepted the claim of the respondents for enhancement of maintenance. The High Court further directed that the above-stated amount shall be payable from the date of filing the application and the appellant shall be obligated to deposit the arrears before the Family Court within a period of six months.

4. We have heard learned Senior Counsel for the appellant as well as learned counsel for the respondents and carefully perused the material placed on record.

5. The appellant has placed the income-tax returns and some other documents in order to assail the monthly income, as projected before the High Court by the respondent-wife, being highly exaggerated. The appellant further claims that he is not in a financial position to pay the maintenance at the rate awarded by the High Court. It is also urged that the respondent-wife is self- employed and earns her own income and, thus, does not require any maintenance.

6. We have given our thoughtful consideration to the rival submissions. It may be mentioned that when the matter came up for hearing on 07.11.2022, this Court passed the following interim directions:

“3. Issue notice, returnable on 20.01.2023.

4. Meanwhile, subject to the petitioner paying interim maintenance of Rs.50,000/-(Rupees fifty thousand) to respondent No.1 -wife and Rs.25,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand) each to both the children (respondent Nos.2 and 3), the payment of enhanced amount of maintenance, as directed by the High Court, shall remain stayed.

5. In addition to the above, the petitioner shall also pay 25% of the arrears of maintenance before the next date of hearing.”

7. Vide order dated 12.03.2024, it was clarified that the reduced amount of maintenance, in terms of order dated 07.11.2022, was required to be paid, from the date the higher amount of maintenance was awarded by the High Court. In other words, it was clarified that the respondent-wife shall be paid Rs.50,000/-per month as maintenance with effect from 12.09.2022 and the children shall be paid maintenance at the rate of Rs.25,000/-per month from the same date, i.e., 12.09.2022. As a necessary corollary, the appellant-husband was held liable to pay the maintenance at the enhanced rate, as awarded by the High Court, from the date when they applied for grant of maintenance till 12.09.2022.

8. In this context, we are inclined to take notice of some of the subsequent events highlighted on behalf of the appellant to suggest that owing to certain setbacks suffered in business, he is presently not in a position to pay maintenance at the rate as awarded by the High Court.

9. It may also be noticed that the maintenance has been awarded by the High Court in