Allahabad High Court sets aside maintenance order for ignoring Section 125 CrPC principles

A woman, Ritu Rai, had applied for maintenance from her husband, an Army Lieutenant Colonel, under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, before the Family Court at Kanpur Nagar. The Additional Principal Judge dismissed her application, reasoning that since she had not proved the husband's claimed monthly income and discrepancies existed in her own name across documents, he could not be ordered to pay maintenance unless a higher court first passed such an order. On revision, the Allahabad High Court (Harvir Singh, J.) held that this reasoning showed a total non-application of judicial mind: the Family Court had wrongly treated an order from a superior court as a precondition for exercising its own jurisdiction under Section 125.

The High Court set aside the order dated 17 January 2024 and directed the Family Court to decide the application afresh, taking into account the Supreme Court's guidance on maintenance quantum in Rajnesh v. Neha, (2021) 2 SCC 324, and Kalyan Dey Chowdhury v. Rita Dey Chowdhury, AIR 2017 SC 2383, after both sides place their financial status on record. Interim maintenance already being paid under Army Rules was directed to continue. The High Court also directed every Judicial Officer in Uttar Pradesh to number paragraphs chronologically in judgments, and the Registrar has now circulated this order across the State for compliance.