Maintenance amount awarded in favour of wife under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, cannot be enhanced by a magistrate court by invoking the provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC), which allows altering allowances awarded for maintenance of wife or children or parents of a person, said the High Court of Karnataka.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while setting aside the order passed by a sessions court in Dharwad, which had upheld an order passed by a magistrate court enhancing maintenance awarded to a wife to ₹5,000 per month from ₹1,000 per month.
The High Court noticed that a woman had moved an application under Section 12 of the Act seeking compensation from her husband and the magistrate court had initially directed the husband to pay ₹1,000 per month as maintenance to her.
After some time, the wife sought enhancement of maintenance by filling an application under Section 127 of the CrPC and the magistrate accepted her plea and enhanced the amount to ₹5,000 per month. And the husband’s plea against the enhancement was dismissed by the sessions court.
However, the HC said that the magistrate can exercise power under Section 127 of Cr.PC to enhance the amount only if an order for paying maintenance was passed earlier under Section 125 of the Cr.PC, which relates to payment of amount for maintenance of wife, children, and parents. Only the maintenances awarded under Section 125 of the Cr.PC can be enhanced under Section 127 of the Cr.PC, it clarified.
Without there being any determination of maintenance under Section 125 of the Cr.PC, the application under Section 127 of the Cr.PC is not maintainable, the High Court said while giving liberty to the aggrieved wife to initiate any other proceeding for enhancement of maintenance in a manner known to law.
