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Rakhi Sadhukhan v. Raja Sadhukhan

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 789Decided 29 May 2025
C.A. No.-010209-010209 - 2024
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

The appellant-wife and respondent-husband married in 1997 and had a son in 1998. In 2008 the husband sought divorce alleging cruelty, which the trial court rejected in 2016, but the Calcutta High Court reversed this on appeal in 2019, granting a divorce on grounds of mental cruelty and irretrievable breakdown of marriage, while fixing permanent alimony for the wife at Rs. 20,000 per month (with a 5% increase every three years) and directing the husband to transfer a mortgaged flat to her name. The wife appealed to the Supreme Court solely on the question of whether this alimony amount was too low given the husband's income and their marital standard of living.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that the husband's financial disclosures, including a past salary at the Taj Hotel of over Rs. 21 lakh per year and a current net income of about Rs. 1,64,000 per month: showed he could afford to pay more than the High Court had fixed. The Court held that a wife who remains unmarried and financially dependent is entitled to a level of maintenance reflecting the marital standard of living and adequate to secure her future, factoring in inflation. It therefore enhanced the permanent alimony to Rs. 50,000 per month, with a 5% increase every two years, while declining to order further support for the now-adult son (26 years old), though clarifying his inheritance rights remained unaffected.

Lesson Learnt

Permanent alimony is not a fixed, one-time figure. Courts will revisit and enhance it based on the paying spouse's demonstrated earning capacity, past income history, and the need to preserve the recipient's standard of living against inflation, even years after the original order.

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

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