The Karnataka High Court has ruled that a husband is legally bound to maintain his wife and child if the wife quit her job to care for their child at the husband’s request.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna, presiding over the case, upheld the trial court’s order directing the husband to pay interim maintenance to his wife and their five-year-old daughter. The Court clarified that paying school fees for the child does not relieve the husband from his duty to provide maintenance.
The Court stated:
“When a wife leaves her job to take care of the child at the insistence of the husband, it becomes the husband’s duty to maintain both the wife and the child. Payment of school fees is a separate responsibility and does not substitute maintenance.”
The wife had filed complaints under Section 498A of the IPC, Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, and Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act. She also sought interim maintenance, which the trial court granted.
The husband, employed as an Assistant Professor, challenged the order, arguing that he had already paid the full school fees since 2022 and that his wife, previously employed at Infosys, did not require financial support. He further claimed that paying maintenance was burdensome given his limited salary.
The High Court rejected these arguments, observing that the husband was in “gross default in payment of maintenance” and emphasized that school fee payments cannot replace the obligation of financial support for both wife and child.
Ultimately, the Court dismissed the husband’s petition and upheld the interim maintenance order, reinforcing the principle that a husband cannot evade responsibility for the welfare of his wife and child.
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