Maintenance award upheld; husband must pay ₹50,000 in medical expenses and the children’s school fees.

The Family Court, Belagavi, ordered the husband to pay monthly maintenance of ₹10,000 to his wife and ₹5,000 to each of their three children in Criminal Miscellaneous No. 120/2022.

The wife and children sought enhancement, contending that the husband was a teacher earning approximately ₹1,18,000 per month and that the wife had medical needs while the children had educational expenses.

The husband sought dismissal or reduction of the award, relying on his salary evidence and the wife’s admission that he had paid certain school expenses and provided clothes.

Both parties challenged the Family Court’s order under Section 19(4) of the Family Courts Act, 1984.

1. Whether the Family Court’s award of ₹25,000 per month in total should be enhanced at the wife and children’s request or reduced at the husband’s request.

2. Whether the husband should be directed to pay the wife’s medical expenses and the children’s school fees in addition to the monthly maintenance.

Both revisions were brought under Section 19(4) of the Family Courts Act, 1984.

The judgment does not identify or apply any separate substantive maintenance provision, precedent, or articulated legal test. It assesses the maintenance award by reference to the parties’ evidence concerning the husband’s income, the family’s needs, and expenses already paid.

The Court considered the husband’s salary evidence, including the salary slip showing a gross figure of ₹1,18,599 and a net amount of ₹68,638, as well as the evidence that he had paid some educational expenses and provided clothes to the children. On the record, it found no basis either to increase the aggregate monthly maintenance of ₹25,000 or to reduce it.

Separately, considering the wife’s request concerning her operation and the children’s educational expenses, the Court directed payment of ₹50,000 toward the wife’s medical expenses and payment of school fees upon production of institutional receipts.

It directed the husband to pay ₹50,000 toward the wife’s medical expenses within two weeks, pay the children’s school fees upon production of receipts, and deposit any outstanding maintenance arrears. It recorded that the ₹50,000 could be deducted from any medical-expense award sought in the pending matrimonial case.