‘Working woman cannot seek monetary help from estranged spouse’

MUMBAI: Bombay high court, in a recent order, held that a “working woman,” who is “capable of maintaining and sustaining herself,” should not be entitled to receiving maintenance from her estranged spouse.

A bench of Justices RMS avant and Sadhana Jadhav were hearing a plea filed by a television actress, who had challenged a family court order denying her any interim maintenance.

The petitioner separated from her husband, who is also a TV actor, in2010. While theirdivorce proceedings are currently pending in the family court, she had sought that considering that her husband had not paid her any maintenance amount in the years sincetheir separation,the family court award her an interim maintenance amount of ₹50,000 each month till the divorce decree is granted.

Her husband, meanwhile, had opposed her demand for interim maintenance saying that while he had worked in TV shows produced by Ba lajitelefil ms between 2005 and 2010, since then, he hadn’t had a stable source of income. He had claimed that he now works “as and when he gets an assignment.”

The family court had accordingly held that since both the parties had failed to produce any documentary evidence of the money that they were making annually, the issue of maintenance would haveto bedecidedupon at a later stage, after examination and cross-examination.

In the high court, however, the woman claimed that she wasn’t part of any TV shows or films currently and thus, had no money of her own. She claimed that for her survival, she was “totally dependent upon her aging parents .” Taking note of these submissions, the high court held that the mere fact that the petitioner was not part of any TV shows or films currently, did not entitle her to interim maintenance. It held that considering that she was an actor who had been working for the past several years, and that she was “capable of finding work in the future, and thus, sustaining herself ,” it did not de em it fit to interfere with the family court’s order.