Mumbai: Husband jobless, so no maintenance hike, Bombay high court tells 72-year-old woman

A self-employed 72-year-old woman, earning about Rs 1,000 a month, failed to get relief from the Bombay high court in the form of enhanced maintenance from her jobless estranged husband.

The court accepted the 80-year-old husband’s contention that he was ailing and dependent on his children.

A division bench of Justices V K Tahilramani and V L Achiliya dismissed an appeal by the senior citizen seeking a hike in monthly maintenance from Rs 800 to Rs 5000. She had approached the HC after a family court in 2011 enhanced her maintenance to Rs 800 although she has asked for Rs 5,000.

The couple had got married in 1962. After three years, the wife allegedly left for her parents’ house.

She then approached the family court, which awarded her a maintenance of Rs125 in 1977. It was later increased to Rs425 in 1993. She sought a higher maintenance of Rs5,000 in 2011, but the family court enhanced it to Rs800.

The wife said that she earned between Rs900 and Rs1,000 a month from the PCO. She claimed that she had to pay a monthly rent of Rs1,000 and needed more money as she suffered from health problems.

The husband told the court that he had been unemployed since 1996 and was dependent on his children from his second marriage.

The HC dismissed the wife’s appeal saying that she earned at least Rs 1,000 per month from the PCO. “Looking at the documents, evidence on record...and also the statement made by the respondent that he himself requires about Rs2,000 for monthly expenses including medical expenses and the fact that the appellant is running a PCO booth, in our view, the family court has rightly enhanced the amount to Rs800 per month,” said the judges.