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Dr. Swapan Kumar Banerjee v. The State of West Bengal & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 1059Decided 19 Sept 2019
Criminal Appeal Nos. 232-233 of 2015
Justice Deepak Gupta · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

The husband had obtained a divorce from his wife on the ground that she had deserted him, and years later she filed a petition claiming maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The husband argued that since Section 125(4) denies maintenance to a wife who "without sufficient reason" refuses to live with her husband, and since his divorce was granted precisely because she had deserted him, she should be barred from claiming maintenance. Courts below had ruled in the wife's favour and awarded her Rs. 10,000 per month based on the husband's substantial income.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Section 125(4), which disqualifies a wife who refuses to live with her husband without sufficient reason, simply does not apply to a woman who has already been divorced, because there is no marital relationship left under which she could be expected to "live with" her husband: the provision only makes sense for a subsisting marriage. The Court relied on its own settled precedent (including a three-judge bench decision it was bound by) holding that a divorced woman has an independent right to maintenance once divorced, regardless of the ground on which the divorce was granted, so a husband cannot divorce his wife for desertion and then use that very divorce to deny her maintenance. On the facts, the Court also rejected the husband's argument that the wife's long delay in claiming maintenance, or her professional qualification as an architect, disqualified her, noting the husband had provided no evidence of her actual income while his own substantial income was on record. The appeals were dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

A divorced wife's right to maintenance under Section 125 CrPC survives independently of why the divorce was granted: a husband cannot rely on a desertion-based divorce decree to argue his ex-wife is disqualified from receiving maintenance, and simply holding a professional degree is not proof of sufficient income without actual evidence.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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