Invoking the principle of gender equality, the Delhi High Court yesterday upheld a lower court order asking a businesswoman to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs20,000 to her estranged, unemployed husband.
The woman runs a business with an annual turnover of about Rs10mn.
Justice G S Sistani upheld the trial court order of 2009 that awarded maintenance to the man.
“He should also enjoy the same status as his wife,” Sistani said.
He orderd the woman to pay Rs20,000 per month to her husband, in addition to a car.
“The law is equal for both of them. When the husband is unemployed then the wife, who is working, should maintain him,” the court said.
The woman had challenged the trial court order, saying a monthly payment of Rs20,000 was too high.
The couple married in 1982 and have a son and a daughter aged 26 and 24 years respectively.
The husband’s lawyer alleged that the woman and the children threw his client out of their home in 2006 after accusing him of having an affair with another woman.
“The court also rejected her plea that as she was already looking after their children, she should be exempted from paying her husband a monthly maintenance,” the lawyer said.
The court considered the wife’s flourishing business of a hotel and paying guest in Greater Noida while fixing the maintenance.
The lawyer said his client had purchased the hotel in his wife’s name.
“She tactfully named herself as the first party in the business and property and threw him out after levelling baseless accusations,” the lawyer said.
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