New Delhi, Nov 2: A woman cannot claim maintenance from her husband if she leaves him out of her own “sweet will”, a Delhi court has held denying alimony to an estranged wife.
The court said living separately from the husband was not sufficient for the wife to claim maintenance as she must prove that her husband had refused to maintain her despite having sufficient means to do so.
“It is a settled position of law that one cannot take benefit of his own wrongs. Wife cannot walk out of the house at her sweet will and also claim maintenance from husband,” Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Rajeev Bansal said.
The court gave its order on the plea for alimony by a woman of Malviya Nagar in south Delhi, challenging a magisterial court order, which had earlier denied her alimony.
The sessions court too endorsed the magisterial court's order saying she has failed to prove the circumstances in which she began living separately from her husband.
“It is vital that the woman is painfully silent about the circumstances in which she left the company of her husband and started living separately from him. When the circumstances of living separately do not surface, adverse inference is to be drawn against the wife that she left the matrimonial home wilfully and with her own choice,” the judge said.
