Magistrate not justified in denying maintenance to woman:Judge

A sessions court here has asked a metropolitan magistrate to decide afresh a woman's plea for maintenance from her estranged husband in a domestic violence case, saying the order was not justified.
Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma set aside the magisterial court order which had refused to grant the woman interim maintenance on the ground that allegations made by her were general in nature.
"The impugned order itself is self-speaking, as instead of following the settled procedure to decide the application seeking interim relief on the basis of the affidavits filed by the parties, the magistrate had insisted upon the trial and had failed to assign specific reasons as to why she was not inclined to grant any interim maintenance to the woman.

"This act of the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) cannot be held as justified," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, the woman had lodged a domestic violence case against the man, a resident of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, and sought maintenance for herself and her two children.
She had claimed that her husband was earning Rs 68,000 as monthly salary and she was entitled to a fair, reasonable and consistent monetary relief and enjoy the same status and quality of life which was earlier enjoyed by her in her matrimonial home.

The magisterial court had in April last year denied the relief to her saying the allegations were general in nature which required evidence and the matter could not be decided without conducting the trial.

The sessions court, while setting aside the decision, also noted that in an earlier order the magistrate had granted an ad-interim maintenance of Rs 5,000 per month to the woman, noting that she had no means of sustenance.
"Matter is remanded back to the court of the MM with directions to decide the interim maintenance application of the appellant afresh keeping in view the affidavits of the parties available on record," it said.