Supreme court to solve divorce cases

New Delhi, April 24: The Justice benchmark Supreme Court is likely helping to resolve divorce cases faster by bringing in a fixed percentage of alimony.

In a divorce case, The Supreme Court directed a West Bengal resident earning a salary of Rs 95,527 to pay monthly alimony of Rs 20,000 to his ex-wife and 18-year-old son.

The couple has been battling it out in court over maintenance since 2003 when the district judge fixed the amount at Rs 4,500.

The high court later awarded maintenance at Rs 16,000 per month in 2015 and increased it to Rs 23,000 in 2016 as the husband's salary went up from Rs 63,842 to Rs 95,527.

The man had argued that since his ex-wife was a trained beautician and Montessori teacher earning Rs 30,000 while their son was now an 18-year-old, the alimony amount should be reduced. The ex-wife argued that additional money was required to support the higher education of their son.

The Supreme Court remarked that the amount set by the high court for the alimony to be paid by the husband to his estranged wife, at 25 percent of his net salary, was a "just and proper" amount.

However, since the man has since remarried and has a child with his second wife, the court observed that it would be difficult for the man to maintain two families and hence reduced the amount from Rs 23,000 to Rs 20,000.

The bench constituted of Justices R Banumathi and MM Santanagoudar made the observation while passing the verdict on the case of a Hoogly resident.

The court said the amount of maintenance or permanent alimony must be sufficient to ensure that a woman lives with dignity after separating from her husband.