HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. – 4
Case :- FIRST APPEAL No. – 776 of 2019
Appellant :- Vijay Singh
Respondent :- Radha Devi And Another
Counsel for Appellant :- A.K.S.Parihar,Birendra Singh
Hon’ble Bala Krishna Narayana,J.
Hon’ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
(Per Hon’ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.)
This appeal under Section 19 of the Family Courts Act has been filed assailing order dated 22.10.2019 passed by Additional Principal Judge, Family Court No. 2, Ghaziabad on the application filed under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter called as ‘Act’) in divorce proceedings pending under Section 13 of the Act, directing the defendant-appellant to pay interim maintenance and medical expenses to the plaintiff-respondents to the tune of Rs. 20,000- per month as well as Rs.5,000/- towards litigation expenses and Rs.2,000/- for conveyance charges for attending the proceedings of the court below.
Fact in brief are that defendant-appellant was married to the respondent no. 1 on 13.12.2015. Out of aforesaid wedlock, a daughter namely, Veera @ Adhira was born on 17.03.2017. Due to matrimonial dispute between parties, defendant-appellant deserted plaintiff-respondent no. 1 on 09.11.2017. A matrimonial petition under Section 13 of the Act was filed by defendant-appellant in the year 2018 before the Family Court, Ghaziabad.
During the pendency of the said proceedings, an application under Section 24 of the Act was filed by plaintiff-respondent claiming interim maintenance as well as litigation expenses. The aforesaid application was contested by respondent by filing objection. It was subsequently stated in appeal, that due to the fact that appellant had to attend legal proceedings, the Company in which he was Director had asked him to resign on 01.04.2019, thus, he is unemployed and will not be able to pay the interim maintenance. Copy of resignation from directorship of the Company has been brought on record as Annexure-8 to the paper-book.
Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that court below had wrongly granted maintenance pendente lite and expenses of proceedings as an application under Section 125 Cr.P.C. claiming maintenance has already been filed by respondent which is pending consideration.
A supplementary affidavit has been filed by appellant bringing on record a certificate issued by Chartered Accountant of the Company, wherein name of shareholders as on 25.11.2019 has been shown and name of appellant does not find place in the said list. Balance-sheet as on 31.03.2019 has also been brought on record to establish the fact that appellant is at present neither Director nor share holder of the Company.
Sri J. R. Pandey, learned counsel appearing for plaintiff-respondent submitted that appellant was Director of a Company known as Three Star Logistics Pvt. Ltd. along with his father and brothers. It was further contended that at the time of marriage, appellant was Director in the aforesaid Company and after he had deserted his wife in the year 2017 and divorce petition filed in the year 2018, he resigned from directorship of the Company on 01.04.2019 so as to avoid payment of maintenance to the respondents.
We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material on record.
It is not in dispute that at the time of marriage of appellant with respondent no. 1, he was Director in a private limited Company along with his father and brother, and it was only after appellant filed divorce petition under Section 13 on 04.01.2018 that he resigned from directorship of the Company on 01.04.2019.
The court below after perusing the income tax return filed by appellant for assessment years 2017-18, 2018-19 had recorded a finding that appellant had an income of Rs.14,96,780/- and thus, directed him to pay Rs.20,000- towards interim maintenance and medical expenses to the respondents.
In view of the finding recorded by court below, we find that the amount so awarded as interim maintenance is not on the higher side, keeping in view the fact that the amount so granted as interim maintenance is to the wife and the girl child who is also undergoing medical treatment for which the appellant is liable to bear the expenses.
The order dated 22.10.2019 does not suffer from any legal infirmity.
The appeal stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 25.11.2019
V.S.Singh
