IMPORTANT POINT
Interim maintenance – When relationship between parties is admitted, Court has inherent power to grant interim maintenance – Grant of maintenance is in a way granting equal opportunity and making litigative playing field equal.

ORDER

This civil revision petition raises a very interesting question of law. The question being whether a Muslim wife, who had presented a plaint in terms of Section 2(viii) of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, is entitled to receive an interim maintenance pending disposal of the said proceedings.

2. There is no dispute in the relationship between the parties. The civil revision petitioner is the husband and the respondent is the wife. They married each other on 07.09.2015 at Giriappa Kalayana Mandapam, Udhagamandalam, The Nilgiris. The marriage was an arranged one. From the wedlock, a girl child was born on 11.10.2016. At the time of marriage, the respondent /wife was working at Tata Consultancy Service, and the husband was pursuing his specialisation in Pediatric Cardiology.

3. According to the respondent/wife, her husband and sister-in-law used to treat her unfairly and she suffered from physical and verbal assault at their hands. Therefore, she was constrained to leave the matrimonial home and return to her parental home at Udhagamandalam. On reaching Udhagamandalam, she started to work at Zomato Private Limited as a City Growth Manager. The husband moved to Kochi from Belgaum to pursue his further studies at Amirtha Institute of Medical Sciences. On his assurance that he would treat her fairly, the respondent/wife joined him at Kochi.

4. The respondent/wife would plead that contrary to the assurance given by the husband, he continued to ill-treat her and the child. It was in the form of physical, verbal, emotional and economical abuse. On the day of completion of his super speciality examination, he informed the respondent/wife that he is returning to Belgaum along with the child. The wife refused to return to his hometown and this enraged the husband, who beat her black and blue and took the daughter away to Belgaum.

5. When the respondent/wife attempted to contact the child, she was not able to do so, and the petitioner refused to permit her to talk with the child. Finding the situation intolerable, the parents of the respondent/wife intervened and attempted to work out a solution. As the situation did not improve, the plaintiff left Kochi and returned to Udhagamandalam.

6. On 2nd August 2022, the civil revision petitioner/husband attempted to restore the matrimonial status. The respondent/wife also attempted to rejoin him with a fond hope of a happy future. Unfortunately, it was belied. As she was abused physically and verbally, she left along with her daughter back to Udhagamandalam. The daughter is currently studying at Crescent Castle Public School, (ICSE Campus) at Udhaga-mandalam. Since the wife suffered at the hands of the husband, she decided to initiate proceedings under Section 2(viii) of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939.

7. The specific plea of the wife is that she is looking after all her expenses and needs. She would allege that the husband is not taking any interest in their daughter and that the expenses for school fees, books, uniform, etc., are being borne by her. The respondent/wife would plead that the husband is residing in Belgaum and is earning about Rs.2,00,000/- a month.

8. On being served with the summons, the civil revision petitioner/husband filed a detailed written statement. As is to be expected, the defendant denied all the allegations. He would state that it was the respondent/wife who had created all the problems and had been twisting the facts in order to approach the court. He would plead that he had been advising the respondent/wife to be patient, in her ways and approach, towards the members of his family.

9. The civil revision petitioner/husband would plead that the respondent/ wife is a very quarrelsome person, who would pick a fight with everyone at the drop of the hat and had a habit of slapping her husband on multiple occasions. The civil revision petitioner attributed the same to post-partum symptoms and on that basis justified her otherwise unacceptable