The Hich Court had held that interim orders for maintenance can continue till the final adjudication of applications filed for maintenance by a spouse under Section 125 of the CrPC.

The judgment had laid down that a revision of interim order is not maintainable, considering that an interim order does not give rise to rights and liabilities of the parties and shall continue only till a final order is passed. Therefore, a revision petition in this regard will not be maintainable. It was held,

“The concept of an interlocutory order qua the revisional jurisdiction of the High Court was completely foreign to the earlier Code, subsequently due to flooding of revision petitions before the High Court, Law Commission suggested revolutionary changes and consequently, in the new 1973 Code, restriction was imposed under Sub-section (2) of Section 397 Cr.P.C., wherein the powers of revision of the High Court against interlocutory order were taken away as it was found to be the main contributing factor in the delay of disposal of criminal cases.”

While deciding on this question in 2018, Justice Bhandari noted that there were differing views expressed on the question of maintainability of revision petitions in case of interim orders.

Justice Bhandari stated,

“Since the interim maintenance order continues till the final decision of an application under Section 125 Cr.P.C. and the decision of an interim application does not decide the rights and liabilities of the parties, it cannot be considered to be a final order so as to give rights to the parties to move a revision petition. Hence, revision petition is not maintainable.”