Court No. - 3
Case :- FIRST APPEAL No. - 307 of 2018 Appellant :- Rahul Kumar Gupta Respondent :- Archana Gupta Counsel for Appellant :- Madhu Ranjan Pandey
Hon'ble Pankaj Mithal,J. Hon'ble Rajiv Joshi,J.
This appeal is directed against the order dated 9.3.2018 passed by the Fast Track Court exercising powers of the Family Court, Pilibhit, deciding the application for pendente lite maintenance under section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act. By the said order, the court below has awarded Rs. 3000/- per month as pendente lite maintenance to the respondent-wife.
The submission of learned counsel for the appellant-husband is that the aforesaid amount awarded is too excessive looking to his income.
There is no dispute with regard to the marriage of the parties and that the respondent-wife has no means to maintain herself. As far as the appellant-husband is concerned, it has come on record that he is working in a private firm. The court below in view of his private employment, has taken his income to be Rs. 6000/- per month and as such has awarded maintenance of Rs. 3000/- per month to the respondent-wife.
The amount of Rs. 3000/- per month as maintenance is on lower side as this is a bare minimum which a person requires to maintain herself in these hard days. Moreover, the order of granting pendente lite maintenance is not the final adjudication of the rights of the parties but of a summary nature subject to final outcome of the divorce petition. Therefore, the appellant- husband can get the proceedings of the divorce case itself decided on merits instead of challenging the order of interim maintenance.
In the facts and circumstances stated above, we find no substance in this appeal and the same is accordingly dismissed, however, leaving it open for the plaintiff-appellant to move an application for expeditious disposal of the divorce petition itself. In case any such application is filed, it is expected that the court below will, in view of the mandate of section ....B of the Act do its best to decide it expeditiously.
The appeal stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 27.4.2018 SNT/