Maintenance — Landmark Guidelines · 4 November 2020
Rajnesh v. Neha: Supreme Court Lays Down Uniform Guidelines on Maintenance
Supreme Court of India · Criminal Appeal No. 730 of 2020 (arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 9503 of 2018); (2021) AIR SC 569
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The wife had filed an application for interim maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for herself and the couple's minor son. The Family Court awarded graduated monthly maintenance, and the Bombay High Court's Nagpur Bench later dismissed the husband's writ petition and affirmed that award. The husband then appealed to the Supreme Court.
While deciding the individual appeal, the two-judge bench used the occasion to address a wider, recurring problem: maintenance claims in India can be filed under several different laws — the Hindu Marriage Act, the Domestic Violence Act, Section 125 CrPC, and others — often leading to overlapping or inconsistent orders from different courts on the same facts. The Court laid down comprehensive guidelines to bring uniformity across these proceedings.
Among the key directions: parties must file a standard affidavit of disclosure of assets and income at the outset of any maintenance proceeding; courts must account for and set off amounts already awarded under other statutes to prevent double recovery; maintenance should ordinarily run from the date the application was filed, not the date of the final order; and courts were directed to factor in a homemaker's non-financial contributions and career sacrifices while assessing the quantum of maintenance. The guidelines apply to maintenance proceedings generally, regardless of which spouse is the applicant.
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