The High Court dismissed an appeal filed against the order of the Family Judge whereby the appellant-husband was directed to pay a sum of Rs 15, 000 per month as maintenance to his wife.

The respondent-wife had filed an application under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 seeking maintenance from her husband. The Family Judge decided the quantum of maintenance as above to be paid by the husband to the wife. Aggrieved thereby, the husband filed the instant appeal. It was contended by the appellant that the Family Court did not properly appraise the facts and documents as submitted by him. It was averred that he was barely earning Rs 10,000 per month and therefore the Family Judge was not right in awarding the abovementioned amount as maintenance.

The High Court perused the record and was of the view that the pleas taken by the appellant about his income were not believable. Similarly, for his plea regarding the salary earned by the respondent was not supported by evidence. The Court referred to Jasbir Kaur v. District Judge, Dehradun, (1997) 7 SCC 7 wherein it was held that “considering the diverse claims made by the parties one inflating the income and the other suppressing, an element of conjecture and guess work does enter for arriving at the income of the husband. It cannot be done by any mathematical precision.” It was observed that in family matters, there is a tendency of spouses no to disclose their correct and true income; the present case was no different. In such view of the matter, it was held that the quantum of maintenance as calculated by the Family Judge suffered from no infirmity. Therefore, the appeal was dismissed.