Interim Maintenance — Section 24 HMA · 16 September 2026
B v. N: Delhi High Court Holds Interim Maintenance Under Section 24 HMA Not Payable for the Period the Wife Was Employed
High Court of Delhi · 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 880; MAT.APP.(F.C.) 439/2024
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The parties married on 25 October 2015 and began living separately in November 2020. The wife filed for divorce on the ground of cruelty and sought interim maintenance under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act. The Family Court directed the husband to pay ₹5,000 a month from the date of her application, 8 January 2021, assessing his income at ₹22,000 a month on the basis of Delhi minimum wages. The husband appealed, saying he earned only ₹16,500 a month as an operator at his father's small photostat shop, that he lived and worked in Haryana, and that the wife was herself employed at a footwear showroom.
A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Renu Bhatnagar upheld the assessment of the husband's income at ₹22,000, noting that Haryana's notified minimum wages were broadly similar to Delhi's and that a salary certificate issued by his father, unsupported by other documents, could not establish a lower income. On the wife's entitlement, it noted her own statements that she was financially independent and that she worked weekends at a showroom for ₹7,000 a month until she was removed in June 2024. It held she was not entitled to interim maintenance for the period she was employed, and modified the order so that the ₹5,000 a month is payable from 1 July 2024.
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