The court established that an able-bodied husband has a legal obligation to maintain his wife, regardless of his employment status, and that interim maintenance is essential to prevent the destitution of a deserted wife.

JUDGMENT

1. The petitioner is before this Court calling in question an order dtd. 3/9/2022 passed in M.C.No.145/2022 on an application filed under Sec. 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 ('the Act for short) seeking interim maintenance from the hands of the husband.

2. Heard Smt. Nagarathna S.K., learned counsel appearing for the petitioner.

3. The petitioner is the husband and the respondent is wife. The two get married on 2/3/2020. It transpires that the relationship between the husband and the wife flounders and on floundering of such relationship, the parties were before the Family Court in M.C.No.145/2022. The issue in the lis does not concern the proceedings before the concerned Court. The wife files an application under Sec. 24 of the Act seeking interim maintenance at the hands of the husband and also files an affidavit of assets and liabilities, as is required in law. The concerned Court in terms of order impugned, after verification and consideration of assets and liabilities so filed, grants an interim maintenance of Rs.10, 000.00 to the wife. It is this order that is called in question by the petitioner before this Court.

4. I have given my anxious consideration to the submissions made by the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and have perused the available material on record.

5. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would contend that the husband has lost his job and the Court comes to conclude that an amount of Rs.50, 000.00 is earned by the husband erroneously and therefore, in the light of him not having a job as on date cannot be directed to be paid a maintenance of sum of Rs.10, 000.00, which has become difficult for him to even consider such payment.

6. The afore-narrated facts are not in dispute. The petitioner and the respondent, husband and wife being before the concerned Court in M.C.No.145/2022 is a matter of record.

The respondent - wife files an application under Sec. 24 of the Act seeking interim maintenance and also files an affidavit of assets and liabilities, as was required in terms of the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of RAJNESH Vs. NEHA, (2021)2 SCC 324. The concerned Court after considering by its recent order, grants maintenance of Rs.10, 000.00 per month to be paid by the husband to the wife. The submission of the learned counsel that the husband has lost his job and cannot be directed to pay maintenance is noted only to be rejected, as the husband being an able bodied man is expected to work and take care of the wife. Any interference of the order that is impugned would run foul of the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Apex Court in the case of ANJU GARG AND ANOTHER Vs. DEEPAK KUMAR GARG, 2022 SCC Online SC 1314. wherein at paragraphs 10 to 14 has held as follows:

10. This Court had made the above observations as the Court felt that the Family Court in the said case had conducted the proceedings without being alive to the objects and reasons, and the spirit of the provisions under Sec. 125 of the Code. Such an impression has also been gathered by this Court in the case on hand. The Family Court had disregarded the basic canon of law that it is the sacrosanct duty of the husband to provide financial support to the wife and to the minor children. The husband is required to earn money even by physical labour, if he is an able-bodied, and could not avoid his obligation, except on the legally permissible grounds mentioned in the statute. In Chaturbhuj v. Sita Bai, it has been held that the object of maintenance proceedings is not to punish a person for his past neglect, but to prevent vagrancy and destitution of a deserted wife, by providing her food, clothing, and shelter by a speedy remedy. As settled by this Court, Sec. 125 Cr.P.C. is a measure of social justice and is specially enacted to protect women and children. It also falls within the Constitutional sweep of Article 15(3), reinforced by Article 39 of the Constitution of India.

11. The Family Court,