The court reinforces the necessity of compliance with maintenance orders, permitting setting aside of ex parte orders contingent upon partial payment of arrears.

ORDER

Dated this the 09^th day of February, 2026 The respondent in M.C.No.201 of 2015 of the Family Court, Pathanamthitta, now pending before the Family Court, Chavara, filed this Crl.M.C under Section 482 of the Cr.PC, praying for setting aside Annexure-A5 order passed by the Family Court, Chavara, in Crl.M.P.No.423 of 2018, by which the Family Court dismissed his application for setting aside the ex parte order, directing him to pay maintenance to his wife at the rate of Rs.4,000/- per month.

2. According to the learned Counsel, the petitioner met with an accident and was under treatment and that is why he could not appear before the Family Court, which resulted in dismissing the application for setting aside the ex parte order. Therefore, he prayed for setting aside Annexure-A5 order of the Family Court, so that he could contest the case on merits.

3. The petition is strongly opposed by the learned Counsel for the 1^st respondent/petitioner in the M.C. According to the learned Counsel, the petitioner is not paying any maintenance to his wife and that the arrears till date will come to more than Rs.5 lakhs. Therefore, he insisted for a direction to pay the arrears of maintenance as a condition to set aside Annexure-A5 order.

4. It appears that, originally, the petitioner appeared before the Family Court and the Family Court referred the parties to mediation and thereafter he failed to file counter and to attend the court, which resulted in passing Annexure-A1 order by the Family Court, Pathanamthitta, directing him to pay maintenance at the rate of Rs.4,000/- per month to his wife. Though he filed an application for setting aside the ex parte order, the same happened to be dismissed as per Annexure-A5 order, as he again did not turn up before the Family Court. So far the petitioner deposited only a sum of Rs.75,000/-, that too, as per an order of this Court dated 09.03.2021.

5. Considering the fact that the Family Court has ordered Rs.4,000/- per month to be paid to the wife of the petitioner, as early as in February, 2017, and so far he had paid only Rs.75,000/- and more than Rs.5 lakhs is in arrears towards the maintenance due to the 1^st respondent, I hold that, if the petitioner is ready to pay a substantial portion of the arrears of maintenance due to his wife, this petition can be allowed. In the above circumstances, this Criminal Miscellaneous Case is allowed, on the condition that the petitioner shall deposit 50% of the arrears of maintenance, as ordered by the Family Court, as per Annexure-A1 order, within a period of two months from today. In case of default, this Criminal Miscellaneous Case will stand dismissed.

Sd/-