Husband claiming clerk’s salary: Court

MUMBAI: A family court had fixed Rs 65,000 as half the monthly expenses for education and other needs of the two children of Nilesh Mehta and his wife Seema as both were working. But Nilesh had appealed against the interim maintenance, claiming that he earned barely Rs 25,000 a month.
Nilesh and Seema’s divorce case is pending before the family court.The court had computed the monthly expenses for the children—the son studies in Class X and daughter in Class II—as Rs 80,000 and Rs 50,000, respectively. The monthly school fee of the boy itself is Rs 50,000. Since both were earning, the court did not grant any interim maintenance to the wife, but asked Nilesh to split the costs on the children’s education and other needs. He was asked to pay Rs 40,000 as interim maintenance to the son and Rs 25,000 to the daughter.
Nilesh, an MD in his family-run company, challenged the court’s decision, but a single bench of the HC refused to give him any relief. He then filed an appeal before the division bench. The single judge had questioned Nilesh’s claim about his income.
“It is common knowledge, and of which judicial notice is required to be taken, that the amount claimed by the husband as his earning is, in the present economic situation in this country, the usual salary of a clerk,” said the judge, adding that Nilesh’s secretary earned Rs 13,000 a month. The court also referred to bank transactions worth lakhs. “A husband who has succeeded so much as to earn Rs 25,000 after begetting two children would be in no position to transfer such amounts from his account,” the court had said.
The divison bench said it was not necessary to express any opinion at this stage on Mehta’s income as reflected in his I-T returns while ordering him to pay the interim maintenance.
Nilesh had claimed that merely because his father provided funds for his wife and children when together, he could not be expected to pay a huge amount. He also said his estranged wife earned more than him.
(Couples’ name changed)