A wife's earning does not bar her from receiving maintenance; the court must consider the husband's financial status and the wife's lifestyle when determining maintenance.

JUDGMENT :

SANDIPKUMAR C. MORE, J.

1. Heard finally with consent of learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the rival parties at admission stage.

2. The Applicants, who are the Petitioners before the learned Family Court No. 2 at Nagpur in Petition No. E-542/2016 have challenged the Judgment and order dated 20/1/2020 passed therein, in the instant Revision Application. Under the impugned Judgment, the learned Family Court No. 2, Nagpur (for short, ‘the learned Family Court’), though granted maintenance to the present Applicant No. 2/daughter at the rate of Rs. 7000/- per month from the date of order, but rejected the claim for maintenance in respect of the present Applicant No. 1/wife. Thus, the Applicant No. 1/wife is before this Court for rejection of her maintenance and for granting a paltry amount to her daughter.

3. The facts leading to the present Revision Application are as under:

The Applicants/Petitioners filed the aforesaid Petition for grant of maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is not disputed that the Applicant No. 1 and Non-applicant are legally wedded wife and husband and the Applicant No. 2 has begotten out of their wedlock. The main allegations made by the Applicant No. 1 in her Petition before the learned Family Court are that after marriage the Non-applicant/husband and his family members pressurized her to meet illegal monetary demands by asking her to claim her share in her father’s property and they also pressurized her to become co-borrower in the housing loan for the flat at Koradi Road. She alleged that the previous wife of the Non-applicant was also harassed by them on account of demand of money, who subsequently died on 5/9/2013 during her pregnancy. She made contention that her in-laws did not provide money for vaccines of the Applicant No. 2/daughter, and therefore, due to such physical harassment she had to do nominal job in the school of her father. According to her, she was getting meager amount of Rs.3000/- per month from the said job, and therefore, filed the application for maintenance alleging that the Non-applicant is earning handsomely by running tuition classes. Thus, she had claimed maintenance at the rate of Rs.60,000/- each per month to herself and her daughter.

The learned Family Court, after conducting the trial and adducing evidence on record, rejected claim of the Applicant No. 1/wife and granted meager amount of Rs.7000/- per month to the Applicant No. 2 under the impugned Judgment. Hence, this Revision Application.

4. The learned Counsel for Applicants strongly submitted that the learned Family Court has definitely erred in rejecting the claim for maintenance of the Applicant No. 1/wife and in granting only Rs.7000/- per month to the Applicant No. 2/daughter. He pointed out that there was evidence on record to show that the Non-applicant/husband was earning upto Rs.10,00,000/- per annum in the year 2015, and therefore, it should have been considered that at the time of delivering Judgment impugned, he must be having income of Rs.20,00,000/- per annum. He pointed out that the learned Family Court wrongly rejected the claim of maintenance in respect of the Applicant No. 1 by observing that she is well educated and able to earn handsomely by ignoring the fact that the Applicant No. 1 had stopped doing the job for maintaining her daughter of tender age. He submitted that there are certain Judgments which have laid down certain guidelines to determine the quantum of maintenance in case of earning wife. He relied on the Judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Rajnesh Vs. Neha and Another, (2021) 2 SCC 324.

5. On the contrary, learned Counsel for the Non-applicant/husband supported the impugned Judgment and submitted that the learned Family Court has considered the evidence on record in proper perspective and also relied upon vital admissions given by the Applicant No. 1/wife showing that she is an earning woman and able to maintain herself.

6. Perused t