Research › Search › Judgment

Punjab High Court · body

2013 DIGILAW 1657 (PNJ)

Sita Devi alias Sita Verma v. Vijay B. Verma

2013-12-11

K.KANNAN

body2013
JUDGMENT K. KANNAN J. (ORAL) 1. Both the revision petitions are connected and arise out of same order passed by the Court below. The revision petition in C.R. No.1860 of 2013 is against the order granting interim maintenance under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act on the plea by the wife that her husband is very wealthy being a practitioner of law as also the owner of a four star hotel at Ludhiana and he also has interest in M/s Vinay Bharat Verma HUF. The petitioner was herself a practicing lawyer and she would state that she had abandoned her practice after her marriage to her husband and on account of present status of disharmony between them, she has resumed practice, registered herself as a notary public and she is earning about 10,000/-per month. The husband was contending that he was earning far less income than what was alleged by the petitioner and his status will not permit him to pay more than what has been granted by the Court below and that there will be no justification in seeking for enhancement before this Court. 2. The husband is petitioner in C.R. No.2377 of 2013 challenging the interim maintenance granted at 30,000/-per month as excessive. 3. The petitioner has filed an income tax return for the assessment year 2012-13 that showed that the husband has been assessed in his professional capacity as advocate and his gross total income is given as 19,84,459/-and the tax paid was 3,27,535/-. The petitioner also filed a document as Annexure P6, company registration of BVM Builders and Promoters Private Ltd. in which husband is a whole time Director and has 40,123 shares and the wife herself has been shown to be holder of 5510 shares which runs a four star hotel. It is a closely held family company and admittedly run by the husband. It is nobody's case that the petitioner has drawn any dividend out of her shareholding. The petitioner has also filed a profit and loss account of BVM Builders and Promoters Private Ltd. that showed the profit and loss at 21,46,947.23 and after tax the profit for the continuing business is reported to be 14,62,616.23 . It is again not the case of the husband that his wife has been rewarded with any share in the profit of the business in BVM Builders and Promoters Private Ltd. 4. It is again not the case of the husband that his wife has been rewarded with any share in the profit of the business in BVM Builders and Promoters Private Ltd. 4. Learned Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the husband states that there had been a compromise attempted during the proceedings where a petition under Section 13B was required to be filed and the husband had undertaken to make the wife an absolute owner of the residential bungalow and the husband has also offered to give a flat having two bed rooms at the Mall Road, Ludhiana and had also undertaken to pay 51 lacs. This settlement aggregating to about 5 crores in value did not fructify on account of wife withdrawing from her consent for a divorce by mutual consent. The income tax returns for the person of the husband and the business which is running shows a total amount of somewhere close to over 30 lacs per year. Even a compromise which was entered into but did not fructify later contains an intrinsic credit worthiness of the husband who had offered to pay 51 lacs. 5. All these facts are brought out only to apprise the status of parties. Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides for interim maintenance which will have a due consideration of the relative status of parties, reasonable wants of the individual paying capacity of the spouse and extent of resources held by the petitioner claiming maintenance. I must record the fact that status of the parties must be seen as persons belonging to the richer echelons and if she must conduct herself with dignity as a person she will have to be provided for herself by private transport by a car and must also have a house which depicts her status. The husband after all has the opulence of running a business which is a four star hotel in one of the prominent cities of Punjab. A husband who could extend luxury to visiting guests to his hotel will do well to keep his wife a tad higher in her standard of living. Considering all these details I am of the view that the maintenance paid @ 30,000/-per month is not sufficient and it has to be raised to 1.50 lacs per month as asked for. A husband who could extend luxury to visiting guests to his hotel will do well to keep his wife a tad higher in her standard of living. Considering all these details I am of the view that the maintenance paid @ 30,000/-per month is not sufficient and it has to be raised to 1.50 lacs per month as asked for. The payment of the amount will take effect from the date of filing of the petition before the Court below and the husband will not prosecute the case unless there is a compliance of the direction for payment of the past arrears and to continue to pay during the course of the proceedings. 6. The order passed already is modified and the civil revision in C.R. No.1860 of 2013 is allowed on the above terms. The petition filed by the husband in C.R. No.2377 of 2013 is dismissed.