Child Marriage Victim Cannot Be Left With Meagre Maintenance, Says Madhya Pradesh High Court; Triples Award to Rs 6,000 Per Month
The Madhya Pradesh High Court at Indore enhanced a wife's maintenance from Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000 per month, holding that a child marriage victim cannot be denied reasonable support, and directed that the enhanced amount runs from the date of her application in August 2021.
The High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore has set aside a Family Court order that awarded a wife only Rs 2,000 per month as maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and has enhanced the amount to Rs 6,000 per month. Justice Gajendra Singh, sitting singly, allowed the criminal revision in part, observing that the wife had been married off as a child at the age of 13 and that awarding her a meagre sum in those circumstances compounded the wrong already done to her. The enhanced maintenance is payable from 7 August 2021, the date on which the wife first filed her application before the Family Court, Neemuch.
The Dispute Before the High Court
The wife, Ranu, filed an application for maintenance on 7 August 2021 before the Principal Judge, Family Court, Neemuch, registered as MJCR No. 100/2021. She alleged that the marriage was solemnised on 27 April 2015, that she was subjected to cruelty, that the husband had sufficient means, and that she was unable to maintain herself. She claimed Rs 10,000 per month as maintenance and an additional Rs 2,000 per month towards accommodation.
The husband, Himashu, opposed the application. His defence was that the wife was only 13 years old at the time of marriage while he was 18, that he had moved to Udaipur after the marriage, and that no physical relations were ever established. He further contended that the alleged cruelty was false, that all stridhan remained with the wife, and that she was not interested in matrimonial life.
The Family Court recorded the testimony of the wife as PW-1 and the evidence of the husband as DW-1 and one Roshanlal as DW-2. After appreciating the evidence, the Family Court allowed the application only partially, awarding Rs 2,000 per month from the date of its order, 19 April 2023. The wife challenged that order by filing Criminal Revision No. 2566 of 2023 before the High Court.
The Legal Issue
The revision raised a focused question: whether Rs 2,000 per month was a reasonable and adequate amount of maintenance for a wife who, on the husband's own case, had been brought into the marriage as a child of 13. The proceeding was filed under Section 19(4) of the Family Courts Act, 1984, which provides the route for revising orders of a Family Court before the High Court.
The husband's counsel opposed the revision. The court was therefore required to assess whether the Family Court's award reflected the wife's actual need and the husband's means, and whether the circumstances of the marriage itself were relevant to that assessment.
How the Bench Reasoned
Justice Gajendra Singh took the husband's own defence as the starting point. If the husband's version was accepted at face value, the wife had been a victim of child marriage. The court observed that she was then being victimised a second time — this time by the award of only a meagre sum as maintenance. The order described this as “a sad picture of the right of the girls.”
The court held that the wife could not be denied a reasonable amount of maintenance. Rs 2,000 per month, in the court's view, could not be justified and required enhancement. The revision was accordingly allowed in part, with the maintenance enhanced from Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000 per month.
The court also addressed the position of the parents who had arranged the child marriage. It held that parents instrumental in solemnising such a marriage cannot escape liability. If the husband faced hardship in paying the enhanced maintenance, the court said, he would have to seek assistance from those parents who were responsible for performing the child marriage in the first place. This observation, while not a formal direction against the parents, placed the moral and practical burden squarely on those who enabled the marriage.
On the question of the effective date, the court directed that the enhanced amount of Rs 6,000 per month would run from 7 August 2021 — the date of the wife's original application — rather than from the date of the Family Court's order or the High Court's order. This means the husband is liable to pay the difference between Rs 2,000 and Rs 6,000 for the period from August 2021 onwards.
Outcome
Criminal Revision No. 2566 of 2023 was allowed in part. The maintenance awarded to the wife is enhanced from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 6,000 per month, effective from 7 August 2021. The High Court directed that a copy of the order be sent to the Family Court, Neemuch, for necessary information. The matter was disposed of accordingly.