One-time transfer to family cannot affect maintenance: HC

The Delhi High Court has ruled that a woman's onetime transfer of funds to her family after separation, or the mere existence of savings in her bank account, cannot be used by the husband as a ground to deny maintenance to his wife.

- Shruti Kakkar

A bench of justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanthan Shankar, in its ruling on December 23, said that in the ordinary course of human conduct, a spouse who takes shelter at her parental home after matrimonial discord is likely to share financial interdependencies with parents and siblings.

In the absence of any concrete proof of income, the court said, such bank transactions are more reasonably attributable to routine family arrangements or use of past savings, rather than to any undisclosed source of professional income.