Answering a significant legal question, the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad has explained the position of law on a wife’s claim for maintenance against her minor husband. Justice Madan Pal Singh, while hearing a criminal revision petition, held that an application under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) is indeed maintainable against a husband who is a minor. However, the court clarified that the legal liability to pay maintenance arises only after the husband attains the age of majority. The court accordingly modified a Family Court order, reducing the maintenance amount and shifting the date from which it becomes payable.
Background of the Case
The matter came before the High Court through a revision petition filed by a husband challenging a judgment dated November 22, 2023, by the Additional Principal Judge, Family Court No. 1, Bareilly. The Family Court had directed the husband to pay a monthly maintenance of Rs. 5,000 to his wife and Rs. 4,000 to their minor daughter, effective from the date the application was filed on February 10, 2019.
It was undisputed that the couple married on July 10, 2016, and had a daughter on September 21, 2018. The husband contended that he was a minor at the time of the marriage and when the maintenance application was filed. According to his high school certificate, his date of birth was January 1, 2003, making him approximately 16 years old when his wife initiated the proceedings.
Arguments of the Parties
Appearing for the husband, counsel Mr. S.M. Iqbal Hasan argued that the maintenance proceedings were not maintainable against a minor without impleading a guardian. He further submitted that the wife was not entitled to maintenance under Section 125(4) Cr.P.C. as she had allegedly refused to live with him without sufficient cause. The counsel also highlighted that the husband was a student with no income, and the awarded amount of Rs. 9,000 per month was “excessive and exorbitant.”
Opposing the petition, counsel for the wife, Mr. Purushottam Pandey, argued that the Cr.P.C. places no bar on initiating maintenance proceedings against a minor husband. He asserted that a husband cannot “shirk upon his pious responsibility to maintain his wife and daughter” on such grounds. It was also noted that the plea of minority was raised for the first time before the High Court.
Court’s Analysis and Findings
Justice Madan Pal Singh first addressed the maintainability of the application. The Court analyzed the Family Court Act, 1984, and observed that for proceedings under Chapter IX of the Cr.P.C., the Code’s own provisions apply. The court noted, “in the provisions/sections contained in Chapter-IX Cr.P.C., it has nowhere mentioned that proceedings under Sections 125 and 128 Cr.P.C. cannot be initiated against a minor but can be initiated through his guardian.” Based on this, the court held the application to be maintainable.
However, the court then examined the husband’s liability. Accepting the high school certificate to determine his age, the court found that he attained majority on January 1, 2021. The judgment stated, “This Court has also room to doubt that a minor person himself dependent upon his parents and in any case it cannot be presumed that he has sufficient means to maintain himself… However, as and when he attains the age of majority i.e. 18 years of age, he has to bear his responsibly in order to maintain his legally wedded wife and his real minor daughter.”
Citing the “sacrosanct duty of the husband to provide financial support,” the court estimated the husband’s potential earning capacity as an able-bodied person to be Rs. 18,000 per month. Applying the 25% net income principle laid down in Supreme Court precedents, the court calculated a total justifiable maintenance of Rs. 4,500 per month.
Final Decision
Partly allowing the revision, the High Court modified the Family Court’s order. The husband was directed to pay Rs. 2,500 per month to his wife and Rs. 2,000 per month to his minor daughter. Crucially, the court ruled that this maintenance is payable not from the date of the application, but from the date the husband attained the age of majority: January 1, 2021. Any excess amount paid under the previous order is to be adjusted.
