Wife divorced for adultery can claim maintenance: SC

A man will have to pay maintenance to his ex-wife even if he succeeds in divorcing her on the ground of desertion and adultery, the Supreme Court held on Thursday. The ruling assumes significance because the top court departed from the strict interpretation of the law – section 125 of the CrPc and gave a liberal meaning to the social legislation meant to provide a succor to women.

A man will have to pay maintenance to his ex-wife even if he succeeds in divorcing her on the ground of desertion and adultery, the Supreme Court held on Thursday.

The ruling assumes significance because the top court departed from the strict interpretation of the law – section 125 of the criminal procedure code (CrPc) and gave a liberal meaning to the social legislation meant to provide a succor to women in destitute conditions.

Under the CrPc provision, the court can order a man to give monthly maintenance to his wife if there is sufficient proof that he neglected or refused to keep her. Definition of a wife also includes a woman who has been divorced.

However, under an exception clause a woman who commits adultery or deserts her husband or lives separately by mutual consent is not entitled to this benefit. If strictly implemented, a woman who is judicially separated from her husband one of these three grounds should also not get this relief.

But, the SC bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said that the purpose of section 125 CrPc was to prevent destitution of women.

“One has to see the legislative intent behind the law. It is a beneficial legislation. The interpretation should be to support the cause of the woman,” the bench noted. The assertion by a threejudge bench is significant because earlier verdicts by the SC that have taken a consistent liberal view of the law were given by two-judge benches.

Thursday’s order by a larger bench reinforces the legal proposition that would be binding in case of any conflicting stand.

SC dismissed the petition of a man who works with the Sahastra Seema Bal who challenged a Himachal Pradesh HC order directing him to pay ₹3,000 every month to his ex-wife.