The Hindu : New Delhi News : Matrimonial courts asked to clear maintenance cases early

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Matrimonial courts asked to clear maintenance cases early

Staff Reporter

In the present case, it took the woman five years to get maintenance
“The very purpose of interim maintenance is defeated if it takes this long”

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has directed matrimonial courts here in the Capital to dispose of applications for interim maintenance by estranged wives within one year of their filing at the most.

Justice Mukul Mudgal issued this direction while enhancing interim maintenance for an estranged wife from Rs.40,000 per month granted by a matrimonial court here to Rs.1.25 lakh per month with effect from the date of filing of the application.

Mr. Justice Mudgal issued the direction to the matrimonial courts after coming to know during the hearing of the present appeal against the lower court judgment that it took the woman, Radhika Narang, and her two children as many as five years to get an interim maintenance.

Mr. Justice Mudgal observed that “the very purpose of interim maintenance is defeated if it takes about five years, as in the present case, as an interim application for maintenance filed on May 2003 came to be disposed only on February 16, 2006”.

“We, therefore, direct that all courts in Delhi must keep the need for an urgent disposal of such applications in mind, and ensure their disposal within one year from the date of filing,” Mr. Justice Mudgal said.

‘Pressure of work’

The Court also noted the pressure of work on matrimonial courts “due to proliferation of matrimonial disputes and considerable shortage of judicial manpower”.

It further directed Ms. Narang’s husband, Karun Raj Narang, to pay up the arrears on or before March 31 this year; to provide her a two-bed room flat with an extra room in a South Delhi colony; a car of any Honda City models with a driver and reimbursement of fuel expense.

Asking the matrimonial courts to be cautious while ascertaining the facts and circumstances of a given case while granting maintenance, Mr. Justice Mudgal said that in cases where the income of the husband was concealed and it was difficult to ascertain the correct current position, the court may fix the amount of maintenance based on factors which were in existence before the souring of relations as the High Court had done in the present case.

The estranged couple lived in a sprawling bungalow on 1.75 acres with a swimming pool on Dr. Gopi Chand Narang Marg.

The woman was drawing a salary of Rs.1.25 per month with perks for serving as one of the directors on the board of one of the companies owned by the family.

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