The mahila court ordered the bank official to pay maintenance to his wife, observing that "it is a settled law that an able bodied man is legally and morally bound to maintain his wife and children."
Metropolitan Magistrate Priya Mahendra, however, also expected the bank official educated wife to earn herself and and said, "A woman having educational qualification and professional experience is also responsible to earn her livelihood and cannot sit idle in order to claim maintenance from husband."
"Nevertheless, the complainant has stated that she is presently without job and not earning anything," the court said while ordering her husband to pay maintenance to her.
The magistrate said the woman and her daughter is entitled to receive Rs 5,000 each per month as maintenance from her husband who works with IDBI Bank in Rajasthan.
The court directed the man to pay additional Rs 5,000 to his wife, a resident of Gautam Nagar here, as legal expenses.
The woman, a native of Nagaland, said she married the man in Kolkata in October 2003 and it was a love marriage and then they started residing in Delhi as they were employed here.
A graduate, the woman said after their marriage her husband refused to go on honeymoon trip like other couples, citing professional commitments. In 2005, a daughter was born to the couple and she was force to leave the job.
By March 2006, their relationship became sour due to the man's egoistic and authoritarian attitude, she alleged. (MORE)
