NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court, while enhancing a woman’s interim maintenance, has said the amount cannot be determined with mathematical precision. Justice Amit Mahajan has also said that “mere earning in foreign currency” does not entitle the wife to claim maintenance by “mechanically converting the husband’s foreign income into Indian currency”.
The court was hearing revision petitions filed by the woman and her husband against a May 2023 order of a family court awarding Rs 50,000 as monthly interim maintenance. The wife had sought an enhancement of the amount, while the husband had contested the award order.
In an order dated December 23, the court said that the determination of interim maintenance “is not an exercise capable of mathematical precision” addidng that more often than not, particularly in cases where one of the spouses is employed abroad and has failed to place a complete and candid disclosure of income before the court, “the assessment necessarily involves a degree of estimation and informed guesswork”.
The court observed that it could not embark upon a roving or final inquiry at the interim stage and was required to arrive at a reasonable figure on the basis of available material, surrounding circumstances, lifestyle indicators and the admitted earning capacity of the earning spouse.
The court also noted that it was an admitted position that the wife is unemployed and that she had specifically claimed her husband’s annual income to be approximately Rs 1.76 crore.
Stating that the wife had filed an affidavit detailing her husband’s earnings in dollars who is employed as a software engineer in the US along with the applicable exchange rates at the relevant time.
Observing that there was no dispute about the husband earning in foreign currency while residing in the United States, the court said he necessarily incurs expenses in foreign currency as well. It added that the standard and cost of living of an individual living in US cannot be compared with those prevailing in Delhi.
It, however, said the entirety of the husband’s income could not be equalised or proportionately mirrored in the amount of maintenance for the wife. The court, however enhanced the interim maintenance amount to Rs 1 lakh per month based on a broad, reasonable and rounded-off assessment.