Husband cannot shirk liability to maintain wife: Court

The husband cannot shirk his liability to maintain his wife on the pretext that she is qualified and competent enough to take a suitable job, a Delhi court has observed while directing a man to pay his estranged wife a monthly interim maintenance in a domestic violence case.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mona Tardi Kerketta directed the man to pay Rs 6,000 as monthly maintenance to his unemployed wife while disposing of her application seeking interim monetary relief under Domestic Violence Act.
"The husband cannot shirk his liability to maintain the complainant on the pretext that she is qualified and competent enough to take a suitable job. Though in today's scenario,even women are expected to shoulder the responsibility to run a household and earn for maintenance but the fact remains that the complainant is unemployed and without any income source.

"After marriage, respondent is duty bound to her as per means and resources available to him. Hence, the complainant is entitled to seek interim maintenance for herself," the court said.
It, however, declined the woman any police protection while observing that the couple was staying away from each other and the woman, who claimed that the man has tarnished her reputation in the society, could not prove that he is trying to contact her in any way.
"The complainant has failed to establish that the man is still attempting to establish contacts with her. No recent incident has been narrated, no recent complaint before any authority has been made. No other proof of communication has been placed on record. In the given circumstances, interim protection order is hereby declined," it said.

The court's order came on an application filed by the woman in a domestic violence against her husband alleging that he tortured her physically and mentally because of which she started residing with her aged parents.
She had also claimed that she was unemployed and her husband is a government employee and was earning Rs 30,000 monthly and an additional Rs 50,000 per annum.
The man, however, denied the allegations and the salary as claimed by the woman. He contended that he was earning Rs 20,000 per month and the woman herself was qualified to earn a living as she was trained to work as a nurse.