Graduate Wife Can’t Be Compelled To Work, Rules High Court; No Reduction In Maintenance Amount

New Delhi: Just because the wife is a graduate, she cannot be compelled to work and it cannot be presumed that she is intentionally not working to claim maintenance from her estranged husband, the Delhi High Court has ruled.

A bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna made the observation while hearing a man’s plea seeking reduction in interim maintenance payable to his wife from Rs 25,000 per month to Rs 15,000 per month on the ground that she has a B.Sc. degree, reported PTI.

The two-judge bench said that there was no denial that the wife was a graduate, but she was never gainfully employed and there was no reason to interfere with the interim maintenance set by the family court.

“No inference can be drawn that merely because the wife is holding a degree of graduation, she must be compelled to work. It can also not be presumed that she is intentionally not working solely with an intent to claim interim maintenance from the husband,” the bench said in a recent order.

The court also refused to accept the wife’s prayer of increasing the maintenance amount, saying no ground was made out by her and that the family court had reasonably considered her and their son’s expenditure.

The court did, however, set aside the penalty of Rs 1,000 per day on delayed payment of interim maintenance by the husband and directed that interest at the rate of 6% per annum be paid to the wife for the delay.

Penalty of Rs 550 per day imposed on delay in payment of litigation costs was also set aside.