Husband Need Not Pay Maintenance To Wife If He Is Jobless, Says High Court 

New Delhi: Stating that Domestic Violence Act can't be used in every case, the Delhi High Court has said that husband cannot be asked to pay maintenance to his wife if he is jobless.

Judge Dhingra was dealing with a petition filed by Sanjay Bharadwaj, who challenged the verdict of a Metropolitan Magistrate and then by an Additional Sessions Judge which have asked him to pay Rs 5,000 as maintenance to his estranged wife.

Sanjay was married to a woman in 2007. However, their marriage did not last even three weeks when he came to know that family members of his wife concealed the fact that his wife has been suffering from chronic illness.

Sanjay, who had been working in Angola in Africa, suddenly lost his job and had to return to India after the police seized his passport. Even after returning to India, he could not fetch any job and remained unemployed.

When he filed a divorce petition, wife filed an FIR against him and a case has been booked under Domestic Violence Act and Section 498A (subjecting a woman to cruelty for dowry) of the Indian Penal Code.

Hearing the verdict, Judge Dhingra observed that there is no law that can tell a man to pay maintenance towards his wife, who has been living separately from her without a job.