A writ petition was filed on Wednesday for declaration that Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is gender discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The petition, filed by advocates M.S. Vishnu Shankar and Sriram Parakkat, argues that the provision directs a man to pay maintenance to his wife even when it is proved that he has no means of income and the wife has sufficient means.
Not gender neutral
The petition asked the apex court to either strike down Section 125 as unconstitutional or, in the alternative, to “read it down in such a manner that it is gender neutral and does not discriminate between a man and a woman”.
The petition was filed by a former Jet Airways employee. The Ministry of Finance has been made a respondent.
The petitioner said he was “only a high school graduate and having a diploma in aircraft maintenance and is currently unemployed due to the shutdown of the Jet Airways but he has been directed by the Additional Judge, Family Court, Dehradun, to provide maintenance to his ex-wife who is a graduate in English, Sociology and Psychology as per the High Court records and is capable of earning a living for herself, but refuses to work,” the petition said.
“Section 125 of Cr.P.C. discriminates on the ground of gender explicitly in case of spouses and discriminates implicitly on the basis of gender in case of providing maintenance to parents and children as a male is presumed to have the ability to earn if he is healthy and able-bodied while the same presumption is not applicable for women,” the petition argued.
