Maintenance – Section 125 Cr PC – Deductions of LIC premium, Home Loan, Payment of Loan for purchase of land are not permissible in law – Allahabad High Court
The Family Court granted maintenance of Rs.15,000/- per month to the wife and Rs.5,000/- each to two children. This was challenged in the Allahabad High Court. He had produced the salary slip of Rs.65,773/- and pleaded that his salary is only Rs.40,000/- per month. After deduction of instalments of loan taken for purchasing land and LIC premium, he is receiving only Rs.28,446/- per month.
HELD, relying on the decision of the Supreme Court in Dr. Kulbhushan Kumar case (1970 3 SCC 129) held that only compulsory statutory deductions as income tax can be reduced from the gross salary. No deduction is permissible for payment of LIC, home loan, instalments, towards payment of loan for purchasing land or insurance premium. Moreover, it was held that the words “unable to maintain herself” would mean the “means available to the deserted wife while was living with her husband and would not take within itself the efforts made by the wife after the desertion to survive somehow.
Judgment dated 29.3.2024 in Criminal Revision No.1762 of 2023 of Rana Pratap Singh Vs. Neetu Singh and two others.
