‘Maintenance of children the responsibility of both parents’

Dismisses petition challenging order for maintenance payment to spouse

MUMBAI: Providing for the maintenance and shelter of a minor child is the responsibility of both the parents, the Bombay high court (HC) said on Tuesday.

“It cannot be said that if the wife is in a position to provide for the financial needs of the child, her spouse is relieved of his obligation to contribute,” said justice MS Sonak, dismissing the petition filed by a Pune resident, challenging an order of the family court at Pune directing him to pay Rs8,000 towards the house rent of his estranged wife and minor child.

The husband had approached the court challenging the order issued in March 2013. He argued the wife was an information technology professional and had been earning about Rs61,000 a month, against his monthly income of Rs35,000. He had said the family court had disregarded the financial condition of the spouses while passing the impugned order.

Justice Sonak, however, held what the law requires is that the court must have due regard

to both the financial needs and the resources of the parties. “However, this does not mean that in a situation where one of the spouses has the resource to provide for the minor children, the other spouse ought to be completely relieved of his obligation to provide for the same,” the judge added.

The high court held that currently the wife was bearing the expenses towards maintenance, medical and educational needs of the child and in such a scenario, if the family court directed the husband to contribute Rs8,000, there was nothing unreasonable about it.

The court also rejected the husband’s contention that the family court could not have issued the order before concluding the legal proceedings.

The judge said if such an interpretation of provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was allowed, the very object of enabling the court to issue such an order would be defeated. MUMBAI: The Marine Drive police finally got access to the kingpin in the recent case of fraud where a businessman from Amravati was cheated of Rs2.75 crore by a man posing as a Mantralaya official.

The accused Anirudh Kulkarni alias Farooq Pathan, 34, was arrested on Tuesday night after he was brought to the city on transit remand from Aurangabad, where he had been held in a fake job racket involving Rs90 lakh.

According to the police, Kulkarni had pretended to be a ‘secretary’ in the finance department of the Government of Maharashtra, and with help from Aurangabad-based loan agent Anand Shastri, had promised businessman Chandrabhan Dembala a loan of Rs30 crore from the state government.

Kulkarni, Shastri and their other accomplices had allegedly taken Rs2.75 crores from the victim as ‘loan processing fees’ and a refundable deposit over a number of meetings that were held at various locations, including the garden at the Mantralaya premises. After taking the money, the group had reportedly disappeared, the police said.

“The accused had given the complainant a loan sanction letter on the letterhead of the government of Maharashtra,” said inspector Vijay Darekar of the Marine Drive police station. “We are gathering more details on this letter. We suspect it to be bogus,” he added.

Kulkarni reportedly claimed before the police that he was just an introducer, not the beneficiary and that he had nothing to do with the case. However, the police believe him to be the main accused and are in the process of recovering the money and evidence from him

Kulkarni was produced before a local court that remanded him in police custody up till October 18, the officer said.