Delhi HC Upholds Wife’s ₹30,000 Monthly Interim Maintenance, But Makes It Payable From Order Date, Leaving Earlier Entitlement Open

The Family Court allowed the respondent-wife’s application for interim maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C. and directed the petitioner-husband to pay ₹30,000 per month from the date of the application until disposal of the petition.

The parties, married in June 2022, had lived separately since August 2022 and had no children.

The husband challenged the order, alleging that it was mechanical and that the wife had substantial undisclosed income; the wife claimed ₹2,00,000 per month.

Both parties alleged concealment of income and assets.

The Family Court’s order was dated 31 May 2025.

The husband sought revision under Section 438 BNSS.

The Court applied the limited scope of revisional jurisdiction under Section 438 BNSS: interference with an interim maintenance order is ordinarily warranted only where it is perverse, arbitrary, patently illegal, grossly improper, or causes a miscarriage of justice; a revisional court should not re-adjudicate disputed financial material or substitute its assessment merely because another estimate is possible.

Under Section 125(2) Cr.P.C., the court has discretion to make maintenance payable from the date of the application or the date of the order, but that discretion must be justified by the circumstances and should not cause unnecessary hardship to the applicant.

The Court declined to interfere with the ₹30,000 monthly award because the husband’s net income, as shown by his income-tax returns, substantially exceeded the wife’s, and the wife had claimed ₹2,00,000 per month.

The competing allegations concerning income and asset concealment were disputed and required determination on evidence, not revisional assessment.

However, given the interim nature of the arrangement, and with the wife’s counsel agreeing, the Court modified the commencement date to the date of the Family Court’s order.

It left the wife’s entitlement for the earlier period to the Family Court for determination at the final stage.

The ₹30,000 monthly interim maintenance award was upheld, but made payable from 31 May 2025, the date of the Family Court’s order.

The husband was directed to clear arrears from that date within two weeks and continue timely monthly payments during the main petition.

The wife’s claim for the period before 31 May 2025, and all other contentions, were left open for the Family Court to decide; the Family Court was requested to dispose of the main petition preferably within six months.