The court upheld the ad-interim maintenance granted to the wife under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, considering the educational qualifications and economic positions of both parties, and the husband's initiation of the litigation against his wife.

JUDGMENT

Fateh Deep Singh, J. - Since both these revision petitions, one by the husband Bikram Sandhu (CR No.3291 of 2018) and the other by wife Japna Dhillon (CR No.4198 of 2018) have both arisen out of a common order dated 04.05.2018 whereby the Court of learned Additional District Judge, Chandigarh in an application filed under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (in short, 'the Act') in the main petition under Section 13 of the Act seeking dissolution of marriage by divorce, had granted ad-interim maintenance. The wife had sought enhancementof the same whereas husband had sought its reduction. Since common question of law and facts are involved, as such both these matters are being disposed off together by this common judgment.

2. Undisputedly, the couple belongs to Jat Sikh agricultural background families and are well qualified. The husband is stated to be holding a degree of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) while the wife is an MBBS by profession, and were got married on 30.04.2016 but the couple fell apart and thus no child was born to them out of this wedlock. It is thereafter, the husband instituted a petition seeking divorce from the respondent wife in which the wife had sought interim maintenance under Section 24 of the Act during the divorce proceedings. It was vide impugned order the Court below had granted to the wife maintenance to the tune of Rs. 50,000/- per month from the date of filing of the application besides Rs. 31,000/- as litigation expenses.

3. The provisions of Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 are primarily by way of economic assistance to the weaker sex to enable her to look after/maintain herself as well as to contest the litigation. The husband has instituted the present proceedings and thus, compelled the wife to seek aid under this provision.

4. Upon giving thoughtful consideration to the lengthy arguments submitted by Mr. Rohit Nagpal, Advocate for the husband and Mr. Raman Mahajan, Advocate representing the wife and onperusal of the records in detail. What is reflected that because of their high education and wealthy family background, the parties are litigating with each other under various provisions of law in different arenas. Besides litigating under Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, there is a complaint under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005; criminal prosecution under cruelty to women etc., so on and so forth, and therefore, is quite illustrative of the extent to which this dispute has come about. The woman as is there in her pleadings and so in the arguments, had left her job with the private hospital before entering into this wedlock. The husband as is there, is owning l/3rd share in a flat in the posh area of Gurugram besides fixed deposit receipts, bank accounts and also owning agricultural land in villages of Sarava Bodla and Aspal in District Muktsar besides share in a house in Sector 26, another apartment in Gurugram and commercial premises in New Delhi. The wife had assessed the income of the husband based on the income tax returns and earnings from the immovable properties as well as movable assets to the tune of Rs. 5.00 lacs per month. On the other hand, the husband claims that the wife belongs to a well-to-do family and there is every likelihood that she will earn her own livelihood being a professional doctor having a sufficient earning and is able to look after herself and maintain, as there is no liability for any expenses to be incurred by her.The learned Court below while adjudicating on this aspect of the matter, had considered at length the status, educational qualification and economic position of both the sides. Since the wife at the time of passing of the impugned order is not shown to be gainfully employed and the husband is shown to be earning considerably and in view of the well enunciated principle of law, the wife is supposed to have status commensurate with that of her husband and merely because there is likelihood of her