DIPAK MISRA, V.GOPALA GOWDA
Bhuwan Mohan Singh – Appellant
Versus
Meena – Respondent
Family Courts, while dealing with applications under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, must prioritize expeditious adjudication to fulfill the objective of providing social justice, preventing destitution, vagrancy, and financial suffering for the wife and children unable to sustain themselves. (!) [1000542860012][1000542860013] Liberal or routine adjournments, particularly those sought by the husband, defeat the purpose of the legislation and cause immense hardship, as seen where a wife received no support for nine years during pendency.[1000542860003][1000542860004][1000542860013] The provision embodies the husband's obligation to provide financial support promptly so the wife can maintain her status and dignity without becoming destitute.[1000542860002] Though not expressly termed "interim," the court upheld directing maintenance from the date of application (rather than the date of final order) where delays occurred and the wife suffered without aid, requiring no special reasons for such direction.[1000542860014][1000542860015] (!) Arrears may be paid in phased manner alongside ongoing monthly payments.[1000542860015]
JUDGMENT
Dipak Misra, J.
Leave granted.
2. The two issues that pronouncedly emanate in this appeal by special leave are whether the Family Court while deciding an application under Section 7 of the Family Court Act, 1984 (for brevity, “the Act”) which includes determination of grant of maintenance to the persons as entitled under that provision, should allow adjournments in an extremely liberal manner remaining oblivious of objects and reasons of the Act and also keeping the windows of wisdom closed and the sense of judicial responsiveness suspended to the manifest perceptibility of vagrancy, destitution, impecuniosity, struggle for survival and the emotional fracture, a wife likely to face under these circumstances and further exhibiting absolute insensitivity to her condition, who, after loosing support of the husband who has failed to husband the marital status denies the wife to have maintenance for almost nine years as that much time is consumed to decide the lis and, in addition, to restrict the grant of maintenance to the date of order on some kind of individual notion. Both the approaches, as we perceive, not only defeat the command of the legislature but also frustrate the ho
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