Court shouldn't be allowed to be used to extort money, says judge; junks woman's maintenance plea

The forum of court should not be allowed to be used by one party to extort money from the other, a Delhi court has observed while dismissing a woman's plea seeking grant of interim maintenance from her husband.

Judge Madhu Jain junked the plea and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the woman, saying it was filed only to blackmail the husband.

"Forum of the court should not be allowed to be used by one party to extort money from the other party. Wife is highly qualified and even before filing the petition (for interim maintenance), she was working and earning. Now, there is no reason as to why she has stopped working and earning. Application has been filed only to blackmail the respondent in order to extort money," the court said.

It said that nowadays section 125 (maintenance of wives, children and parents) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is being used by parties only to blackmail or to extort money from other parties.

"It seems that nowadays Section 125 CrPC is used by parties only to blackmail other parties or to extort the money. Present case is a glorious example of this fact. Wife is highly qualified and at present she is pursuing her research in the UK but till date she has not disclosed her stipend which she must be getting while pursuing her Doctorate," said the court.

The court noted that the wife was married in 2012 and was living with her husband in the UK.

The woman came to India in 2014 and filed two criminal cases against her husband and his family members who were residing in India, alleging domestic violence and attempt to rape, the plea said.

All of them were granted anticipatory bail after which the woman filed a case of interim maintenance under Section 125 of CrPC.

The man, through his lawyer Mahesh Tiwari, contended that the petitioner was highly educated and employed with reputed companies while she was in India.

He further claimed that there were huge transactions in her bank statement but all those necessary information have been concealed from the court.

The court further said that a bare perusal of the record showed that both the parties were not only well qualified but highly qualified and capable to earn and were earning a handsome amount too.

"From the income affidavit of the wife, it is clear that she has clearly tried to conceal her true income from the court... She has not filed her salary slip for the period when she was working... in India.

"Rather, her account statement showed that there were heavy transactions in her account and she intentionally had not clarified the same till date and not filed her written submissions, despite the orders of the court," the court said.