The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Indu Malhotra and R. Subhash Reddy is set to frame guidelines regarding the payment of maintenance in the matrimonial matters. While hearing an appeal on the judgment of Bombay High Court the bench appointed Senior Advocates Gopal Sankarnarayanan and Anitha Shenoy as amicus curiae to assist them in framing the guidelines.

Rajnesh v Neha is a matrimonial dispute where the High Court of Bombay had upheld the decision of the Family Court which directed the husband to pay monthly interim maintenance of Rs. 15000/- beginning 1st September 2019 to the wife and Rs. 5000/- to the child for a period of 24 months starting 1st September 2019, after which the maintenance money going to the child was to be increased to Rs. 10000/-.

The High Court had made an observation that the wife is also entitled to lead a lifestyle similar to that of the husband while the matter is pending before the Family Court. The bench had taken note of the Facebook posts that were showing the husband flaunting photographs of wildlife captured from all over the world using expensive camera and equipments.

The Supreme Court bench while hearing the appeal had directed the husband to handover a demand draft of Rs. 2,00,000/- to the counsel of wife for the arrears in the payment and an additional amount of Rs. 3,00,000/- towards the arrear of maintenance within two weeks.

The matter is now listed on 14th October, 2019 for further proceedings.

— India Legal Bureau