The Madras High Court Bench here has directed a 63-year-old retired manager of a public sector unit in Bengaluru to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs. 4,500 to his 57-year-old wife who is alleged to have been neglected by him after his marriage with another woman.
Partly allowing a revision petition filed by the elderly woman, Justice M. Sathyanarayanan modified an order passed by the Dindigul Principal Sessions Court last year reducing the monthly maintenance to Rs. 3000 from Rs. 5000 awarded by a Judicial Magistrate in Palani in 2012.
Observing that “calculation of maintenance amount is purely a guess work and there is no straight jacket formula to arrive at the quantum,” the judge said that Rs. 4,500 would be a reasonable amount since the petitioner was still living under the same roof along with her husband.
He pointed out that the couple had entered into wedlock on November 17, 1977 and gave birth to two sons who were now married and settled elsewhere.
Though the petitioner was living along with her husband, she began claiming maintenance in 2010 after his marriage with another woman.
The Magistrate awarded her Rs. 5,000 a month, but the first appellate court reduced the amount on the assumption that her sons would also be supporting her financially.
The court also pointed out that her husband was paying electricity and other charges for the house in which she was living.
However, pointing out that there was no evidence to prove that the woman was being supported by her married sons and since divorce proceedings between the aged couple were pending, Mr. Justice Sathyanarayanan increased the quantum after stating that her husband was bound to maintain her.
