Context: In a significant judgment delivered on Wednesday, the Supreme Court laid down guidelines for determining quantum of interim maintenance to be awarded during pendency of matrimonial matters from the day, it had been filed. The bench of Justices Indu Malhotra and R. Subhash Reddy also made it mandatory for a spouse to reveal at any maintenance proceedings whether any other court had already granted the spouse maintenance under some other law. It also made it mandatory for both spouses to state their financial positions at any maintenance proceedings and update the affidavit whenever significant changes occur in their circumstances during the course of the hearings. Estranged wives often seek maintenance simultaneously under various laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, Domestic Violence Act, Special Marriages Act and Section 125 of the CrPC while keeping the various courts in the dark about this, the bench noted. The bench also stressed the need for both spouses to file an “affidavit of disclosure of assets and liabilities” during maintenance proceedings at any court. The existing statutes do not mandate such disclosure. The ruling came on a maintenance dispute between a Mumbai-based couple. 
Key Points

• In a judgement, the Supreme Court has laid down guidelines for matrimonial cases.
• The judgment was based on a matrimonial plea from Maharashtra on the question of payment of maintenance by a man to his wife and son under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

As per the Supreme Court guidelines (Have a brief overview):

• Deserted wives and children are entitled to alimony/maintenance from their husbands from the date they apply for it in a court of law.
• A violation would lead to punishment, such as civil detention and even attachment of the property of the latter.
• The plea of the husband that he does not possess any source of income ipso facto does not absolve him of his moral duty to maintain his wife, if he is able-bodied and has educational qualifications.
• Both the applicant wife and the respondent husband have to disclose their assets and liabilities in a maintenance case. Any earlier case filed or pending under any other law should also be revealed in court.
• The expenses of the children, including their education, basic needs and other vocational activities, should be factored in by courts while calculating the alimony.
• Other factors such as “spiralling inflation rates and high costs of living” should be considered, but the wife should receive an alimony which fit the standard of life she was used to in the matrimonial home.

Criteria for determining the quantum of maintenance
For determining the quantum of maintenance payable to an applicant, the factors which would weigh with the Court inter alia are the 

• status of the parties; 
• reasonable needs of the wife and dependant children; 
• whether the applicant is educated and professionally qualified; 
• whether the applicant has any independent source of income; 
• whether the income is sufficient to enable her to maintain the same standard of living as she was accustomed to in her matrimonial home; 
• whether the applicant was employed prior to her marriage; 
• whether she was working during the subsistence of the marriage; 
• whether the wife was required to sacrifice her employment opportunities for nurturing the family, child rearing, and looking after adult members of the family; 
• reasonable costs of litigation for a non-working wife.

The financial capacity of the husband, his actual income, reasonable expenses for his own maintenance, and dependant family members whom he is obliged to maintain under the law, liabilities if any, would be required to be taken into consideration, to arrive at the appropriate quantum of maintenance to be paid. 

• The Court must have due regard to the standard of living of the husband, as well as the spiralling inflation rates and high costs of living.
• Serious disability or ill health of a spouse, child / children from the marriage / dependant relative who require constant care and recurrent expenditure, would also be a relevant consideration while quantifying maintenance
• The aforesaid factors are however not exhaustive, and the concerned Court may exercise its discretion to consider any other factor/s which may be necessary or of relevance in the facts and circumstances of a case.

Date from which maintenance is to be awarded

• Maintenance in all cases will be awarded from the date of filing the application for maintenance before the concerned Court. 
• The right to claim maintenance must date back to the date of filing the application, since the period during which the maintenance proceedings remained pending is not within the control of the applicant.

Need for:

• Women deserted by husbands were left in dire straits, often reduced to destitution, for lack of means to sustain themselves and their children.

Implications

• These uniform and comprehensive guidelines should be followed by family courts, magistrates and lower courts while hearing applications filed by women seeking maintenance from their estranged husbands.

Road Ahead

• The Supreme court judgement is a step in right direction, it streamlines the process of matrimonial disputes and the issues of maintenance. People need to respect the law and they should live with dignity, do not lie to the courts try to be as honest as possible and try to settle matters with civility. At the end of the day however these laws dealing with matrimonial disputes and maintenance are not gender neutral and not all of them of course support the stay at home husbands or the men in that particular case.So probably its a time to take relook so far as all these laws are concerned and bring in one umbrella law dealing with all the aspects.