Courts must award reasonable maintenance despite absence of conclusive proof of the husband’s exact income.

The petitioner-wife and respondent-husband were married in 2015 according to Hindu rites, and a male child was born from the marriage on 1 August 2017.

Owing to alleged cruelty and the husband’s failure to discharge his marital obligations, the wife left the matrimonial home and sought maintenance for herself and the minor child before the Family Court, Belonia, in Maintenance Case No. 10 of 2023.

The Family Court allowed the maintenance application and awarded Rs. 3,000 per month in total—Rs. 1,500 for the wife and Rs. 1,500 for the child—from 27 April 2023, along with arrears.

The wife challenged the quantum, contending that the husband owned rubber plantations and inherited landed property and had an earning capacity of at least Rs. 60,000 per month.

Whether the maintenance awarded by the Family Court was so inadequate as to warrant interference and enhancement by the High Court?

Whether the husband’s earning capacity and ownership of landed properties justified enhancement despite the wife’s inability to establish his exact monthly income through documentary evidence?

What amount of maintenance should be awarded to the wife and minor child, and from what date?

The Court applied the principle that an able-bodied husband who has refused or neglected to maintain his wife is under an obligation to provide reasonable maintenance, and that maintenance must be sufficient to meet the basic needs of the wife and minor child.

The Court relied on Santa Chakraborty v. Kartik Chakraborty & Anr., 2024 2 TLR 68, which permits the Court to assess the husband’s income in the absence of a statement of assets and liabilities; applying that approach, the Family Court had assessed the husband’s monthly income at Rs. 12,724.

The determination of maintenance does not require proof of the husband’s exact income where his earning capacity, ability to work, and available property indicate that the amount awarded is inadequate.

The High Court found that the marriage and paternity were undisputed and that the husband had not satisfactorily rebutted the wife’s evidence concerning the circumstances relevant to maintenance.

Although the wife could not produce conclusive documentary proof of the husband’s precise monthly income, the husband had failed to submit the directed statement of assets and liabilities and had also failed to substantiate his own income.

The record of rights indicated that he owned landed properties, while he was also a cultivator and an able-bodied person capable of earning more than Rs. 600 per day even as a daily labourer.

In that context, the existing award of Rs. 3,000 per month was held to be meagre and insufficient for the wife’s and child’s basic needs. The Court therefore enhanced the consolidated maintenance to Rs. 5,000 per month.

The husband was directed to pay Rs. 5,000 per month from 27 April 2023, comprising Rs. 3,500 for the wife and Rs. 1,500 for the minor child.

Arrears for April 2023 to August 2026 were calculated at Rs. 2,05,000, payable either in full or in 40 monthly instalments of Rs. 5,125 from September 2026, subject to adjustment of any amount already paid.

The husband was further directed to pay regular monthly maintenance from September 2026 onwards, in addition to the arrear instalments, within the prescribed time.