BENGALURU: The High Court has directed a tech professional working in Saudi Arabia to pay maintenance of `50,000 every month to his wife and daughter settled in Bengaluru.
Justice S Abdul Nazeer struck down an order passed by a family court directing the husband, a resident of Kannur, Kerala, to pay `10,000 each per month to his wife and daughter.
The couple had filed a divorce petition before the family court in 2013. Meanwhile, the wife had moved the family court seeking a maintenance of `1,50,000 per month and `50,000 towards litigation expenses.
The court allowed the application directing the husband to pay `10,000 per month each to the wife and daughter towards interim maintenance and `20,000 towards litigation expenses.
The wife moved the High Court seeking a higher amount as maintenance and the husband too moved the High Court to have the order set aside. He submitted that the award of interim maintenance was on the higher side and that his wife was educated and was capable of maintaining herself. He stated that she was working with Axis Bank and had 1,700 shares in her name.
Contesting his claim, the wife submitted that he was employed in Saudi Arabia and earning more than 36,000 Saudi riyals, equivalent to `5 lakh. She stated that she had resigned her job at her husband’s insistence and joined him in Saudi Arabia. Now, she had to maintain herself and her child.
After considering both the sides, the court observed that the wife did not have any permanent source of income except the 1,700 shares in Axis Bank. It said it was clear that the husband was a software engineer working in a reputed company in Saudi Arabia. Records would indicate that the husband was earning more than `3 to 4 lakh every month.
Holding that the award of interim maintenance by the family court was meagre, the court directed the husband to pay `50,000 per month towards the maintenance of his wife and daughter.