The Chhattisgarh High Court recently ruled that a woman divorced on the grounds of adultery is not entitled to claim maintenance from her husband under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)..Justice Arvind Kumar Verma added that when the family court grants a decree of divorce in favour of husband due to the wife's adultery, the Court in maintenance proceedings cannot take a contrary view."Sub-Section 4 of Section 125 of the CrPC provides that if a woman lives in adultery, whose marriage is still subsisting, she is not entitled for maintenance from her husband. Suppose, a decree for divorce is granted on the ground of her living in adultery, can it be said that the said disqualification of which she was suffering from all along, during the subsistence of the marriage, will cease to exist, because of the decree for divorce?. The prudent answer to this question shall be an emphatic - "No". The decree obtained by the husband for divorce on proving the adulterous life of the wife cannot give a license to her to continue to live in illicit relationship and to get her right to claim maintenance revived. Therefore, I conclude that a divorced wife, who lives in adultery, viz., living in illicit relationship with man other than her former husband is disqualified from claiming maintenance, under Section 125 of the Code," the Court held..The Court was hearing cross-petitions, one filed by the husband challenging a family court order directing him to pay ₹4,000 per month as maintenance to his former wife, and the other filed by the woman contesting the adequacy of the maintenance amount.The husband argued that the family court failed to take into account his financial constraints. It was submitted that he was a contractual employee earning only ₹17,131 per month.He also contended that the family court overlooked the fact that another court had granted him divorce after finding that the wife was committing adultery with his younger brother..Challenging the order, the wife argued that the maintenance amount of ₹4,000 per month was insufficient and should be enhanced to ₹20,000, as she had no independent source of income.She further contended that the term living in adultery under Section 125(4) CrPC refers to an ongoing adulterous relationship, which had not been proven in her case..Considering the arguments, the Court noted that the husband had filed for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act and a decree was granted on September 8, 2023, on the grounds of adultery.“If once the decree for divorce is granted on the ground of adultery, such finding is relevant for deciding the issue of adultery in the present case. The decree is a decree passed on proof of the claim made by means of sufficient evidence which has not been challenged by the aggrieved party," it added..Thus, the Court said the decree granted by the family court proved that the wife was living in adultery and thus stood disqualified from claiming maintenance from the husband.Consequently, the High Court set aside the family court's order of granting ₹4,000 maintenance to wife. The husband's revision petition was allowed and the wife's plea for enhanced maintenance was dismissed. .Advocate P Acharya appeared for the husband.Advocate Shubhank Tiwari appeared for the wife.[Read Order]
