These deductions accrue only to benefit of the petitioner, Justice Hanchate Sanjeevkumar said, dismissing a petition filed by a SBI employee as “devoid of merit”.
The petitioner, who works as a branch manager in SBI, had sought divorce from his wife, who had filed a separate petition seeking restoration of conjugal rights before a family court at Mysuru. She had also filed an application under section 125 of CrPC for interim maintenance.
On Aug 16, 2023, court directed the husband to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs 15,000 to his wife for her lifetime or till she remarries, and Rs 10,000 a month to their four-year-old daughter. In addition, Rs 10,000 was awarded in litigation cost.
Challenging the order, the husband argued that though his gross salary is Rs 1,01,628 per month, his take-home after deductions is only Rs 77,816. Thus, he is unable to pay maintenance to the wife and child, as ordered by family court. The wife submitted that she did not have any source of income.
Justice Sanjeevkumar noted that the amounts compulsorily deducted were income tax and professional tax, and the petitioner was citing an exaggerated amount only to deny maintenance to his wife and child.
In any case, the deductions stated were ultimately for the petitioner’s benefit, and hence could not be ground to award lesser quantum of maintenance, the judge said.
He said the amount deducted could not be considered while calculating the husband’s salary, because if this was allowed, in every case of petition filed under section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code, “there will be a tendency by the husband to create artificial deductions to show less take-home salary with an intention to mislead courts”.