AMITY LAW SCHOOL

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ASSIGNMENT

CASE ANALYSIS – RAJNESH VS NEHA (2021) 2 SCC 324

Submitted to – Dr Kunal Rohira Submitted by – Aditi Shekhawat

Associate Professor Enroll no – A21511120073
Amity Law School BA LLB (Hons)

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TABLE OF CONTENT ‘S

1. INTRODUCTION

2. METHOD FOLLOWED

3. BRIEF FACTS

4. ISSUES

5. STATUTES AND ACTS

6. RULES

7. CONTENTION S

2
METHOD FOLLOWED

In the present case analysis the IRAC method has been followed according to
which the steps has to be taken in the following manner -;

ISSUES

RULES (Applied )

ANALYSIS OF ISSUES

CONCLUSION

3
INTRODUCTION

There come a few judgments that have the potential to change the course of the
legal history of a country. India has been fortunate enough to have them –
“Keshavananda Bharti” being the most celebrated one and with reason.
Similarly, when it comes to maintenance proceedings related to matrimonial
disputes, this judgment has certainly changed the course of how maintenance
proceedings were before this judgment and how they are now, and needless to
mention the change is certainly for the better. Although the facts were based on
regular maintenance disputes between the parties, the Court took this
opportunity to adjudicate upon some very pressing legal issues related to the
Maintenance and also pronounce some extremely impactful and valuable
directions to straighten those issues and related practical problems that generally
arise in such litigation proceedings. More so the ambiguity in provisions,
practical difficulties in the provision of maintenance at an appropriate time, and
the needs of the rapidly changing social and marital fabric of the country could
not have given a louder silent scream for such intervention by the Apex Court.

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BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE

 The Respondent No. 1-wife left the matrimonial home in January 2013,
shortly after the birth of the son Respondent No. 2.
 On 02.09.2013, the wife filed an application for interim maintenance
Under Section 125 Code of Criminal Procedure on behalf of herself and
the minor son which is still pending in the family court of the Nagpur .
 The Family Court vide a detailed Order dated 24.08.2015 awarded
interim maintenance of Rs. 15,000 per month to the Respondent No. 1-
wife from 01.09.2013; and Rs. 5,000 per month as interim maintenance
for the Respondent No. 2-son from 01.09.2013 to 31.08.2015; and @ Rs.
10,000 per month from 01.09.2015 onwards till further orders were
passed in the main petition.

 The Appellant-husband challenged the Order of the Family Court

through the writ petition filed before the Bombay High Court, Nagpur
Bench. The High Court dismissed the writ petition and affirmed the
Judgment passed by the Family Court.

 The present appeal has been filed to impugn the Order dated
14.08.2018.

 This Court issued notice to the wife and directed the Appellanthusband
to file his Income Tax Returns and Assessment Orders for the period
from vide Order 2005-2006 till date .
 He was also directed to place a photocopy of his passport on record.
By a further Order dated 11.09.2019, the Appellant husband was
directed to make payment of the arrears of Rs. 2,00,000 towards interim
maintenance to the wife; and a further amount of Rs. 3,00,000, which

5
 was due and payable to the wife towards arrears of maintenance, as per
his own admission.

 By a subsequent Order dated 14.10.2019, it was recorded that only a

part of the arrears had been paid. A final opportunity was granted to the
Appellant-husband to make payment of the balance amount by
30.11.2019, failing which, the Court would proceed under the
Contempt of Courts Act for wilful disobedience with the Orders passed
by this Court.

 The Appellant had filed an Affidavit dated 23.08.2020 wherein he

admitted and acknowledged that an amount of Rs. 5,00,000 was
pending towards arrears of maintenance to the Respondent No. 1-wife.
The Appellant was directed to pay 50% of the arrears within a period of
4 weeks to the Respondent No. 1, failing which, he was directed to
remain present before the Court on the next date of hearing .

 The matter was also referred to the mediation but was failed due to the
disagreements between the parties on several issues .

 Finally , the matter reached to the court after which several guidelines
touching upon the concept of the maintenance by several statutes were
given by the court .

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ISSUES

The Court framed the following issues that it felt should be adjudicated
upon to set the legal position in the maintenance jurisdiction in
matrimonial disputes in India straight from then on :

 Issue of overlapping jurisdictions of the various maintenance provisions

in the Indian legal system.

 Ambiguity in the award of the maintenance amount: Should it be from

the date of the order or the date of the application or from some other date?

 Issue of permanent alimony: For how long shall the permanent alimony
be awarded and what shall be the factors to be considered while deciding
its quantum?

 What should be the criteria for determining the Quantum of

maintenance?

 Existence of striking off the defense as a remedy: Whether the defense

can be struck down on non-payment of maintenance by the respondent?

Apart from the adjudication in the abovementioned issues, Court also gave
directions on two other points, which are as follows:

 Payment of interim maintenance.

 Enforcement of the Maintenance Orders.

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STATUTES AND ACTS

1. Special Marriage Act

 Section 36
 Section 37
2. Criminal Procedure Code ,1973
 Section 125
3. Protection of Women from domestic violence act , 2005
4. Hindu Marriage Act ,1955
 Section 24
 Section 25
5. Hindu Maintenance and Adoption Act , 1965
 Section 18

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RULES

Maintenance laws have been enacted as a measure of social justice to

provide recourse to dependant wives and children for their financial support,
so as to prevent them from falling into destitution and vagrancy.

Article 15(3) of the Constitution of India provides that:

Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any special
provision for women and children.

Article 15 (3) reinforced by Article 39 of the Constitution of India, which

envisages a positive role for the State in fostering change towards the
empowerment of women, led to the enactment of various legislations from
time to time.

The legislations which have been framed on the issue of maintenance are the
Special Marriage Act 1954 ("SMA"), Section 125 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure 1973; and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act,
2005 ("D.V. Act") which provide a statutory remedy to women, irrespective
of the religious community to which they belong, apart from the personal
laws applicable to various religious communities .

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 CONTENTIONS ;

APPELLANT

 The appellant contended that he was presently unemployed,

and was not in a position to pay maintenance to the
Respondent No. 1-wife.
 He also submitted that he did not possess any immovable
property and had only operational bank account .
 It was further submitted that the Family Court had
erroneously relied upon the Income Tax Returns of 2006,
while determining the maintenance payable in 2013.
 He further submitted that he was exploring new business
projects, which would enable him to be in a better position to
sustain his family.

RESPONDENT

 The wife has inter alia submitted that the amount of Rs.
10,000 awarded for the son was granted when he was 2 ½
years old in 2015.
 The said amount was now highly inadequate to meet the
expenses of a growing child, who is 7 ½ years old, and is a
school-going boy.
 It was further submitted that the admission fee for the current
academic year 2020-2021 had not yet been paid. If the fee

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 was not paid within time, the school would discontinue
sending the link for online classes .
 She submitted that she was being overburdened by the
growing expenses, with no support from the husband.
 With respect to the contention of the husband that he had no
income, she submitted that the husband had made investments
in real estate projects, and other businesses, which he was
concealing from the Court, and diverting the income to his
parents.
 It has also been alleged that the Appellant had retained illegal
possession of her Streedhan, which he was refusing to return.
 It was submitted that there was a major trust deficit, and there
was no prospect for reconciliation.

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ANALYSIS

 Overlapping of jurisdiction
The Court mentioned that there were various statutes in the Indian
legal system where the provisions for providing the relief of
maintenance exist. The Court recognized that maintenance can be
claimed in either of these or simultaneously through more than one
of these statutes as they are independent of each other i.e. they were
created for different objects and purposes and the nature of the
remedy they provide is also slightly different from each other at
times. For example – a Hindu wife can claim maintenance from her
husband under HAMA and also under the HMA in case she is also
claiming relief under section 9 or 13 of the HMA.
The Apex Court itself has considered this overlapping issue in
Nanak Chand v Chandra Kishore Aggarwal and Ors.1 and held
that there was no inconsistency between CrPC and HAMA and said
in para 4 that “Both can stand together”. 2 However, the court still
recognized that even though one can’t be stopped from asking for
relief under such different statutes as the reliefs these acts provide
are distinct in nature from the other, the simultaneous operation of
such acts leads “to a multiplicity of proceedings and conflicting
orders”3.In case of overlapping jurisdictions, should the amounts
awarded under separate statutes be adjusted with each other or not.
Hence court mentioned Section 26(3) of the DV Act which provided
that in case any relief is obtained by a woman under any other
1
Nanak Chand v Chandra Kishore Aggarwal (1969) 3 SCC 802
2
Nanak Chand v Chandra Kishore Aggarwal (n 1)
3
Rajnesh V Neha

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 statute, she shall inform about the same to the magistrate hearing
under the DV Act. However, the apex court mentioned a Bombay
High Court judgment in “Vishal v Aparna and Anr.” 4specifically
mentioning that “the Bombay High Court has in a wellreasoned
judgment in Vishal v Aparna and Anr. has taken the correct view”.
This “correct view” came while the Bombay High Court was
adjudicating upon a dispute where the aggrieved had filed for relief
under Crpc as well as DV Act. The said High Court held that the
object of informing the Magistrate of the other obtained relief under
Section 26(3) was that the Magistrate should not ignore the
maintenance awarded in any other proceeding while determining the
actual requirement of the grant in the present proceeding over and
after the previous award.
. In one of its judgments in Sudeep Chaudhary v Radha
Chaudhary5, Court ordered adjustment in maintenance amounts
awarded under the wife’s respective maintenance applications under
Section 125 CrPC and HMA.
To overcome the issue of overlapping jurisdiction, and avoid
conflicting orders being passed in different proceedings, we direct
that in a subsequent maintenance proceeding, the applicant shall
disclose the previous maintenance proceeding and the orders passed
therein so that the Court would take into consideration the
maintenance already awarded in the previous proceeding, and grant
an adjustment or set-off of the said amount.
 Payment of interim maintenance
The Apex Court took cognizance of the huge delays that take place
in the disposal of the Interim maintenance applications by the

4
Vishal v Aparna and Anr. 2018 SCC OnLine Bom 1207
5
(1997) 11 SCC 286

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 courts. For example, even though there has been inserted through
respective amendments in 2001 in S.125 CrPC and S.24 HMA, a
strict time limit of 60 days from the date of service of notice to the
contesting party for the disposal of Interim Maintenance
applications, the Court observed that these applications remain
pending for years. These huge delays defeat the whole purpose of
the discussed interim relief.The common reasons noted by the court
for such delay were:
 Enormous time is taken in completion of pleadings in the interim
stage itself
,  Parties taking repeated adjournments,
 Increased workload on family courts etc.
The court formulated further detailed guidelines in the said matter
taking some reference from the “Kusum Sharma” series of
judgments of the Delhi High Court. The 1st Kusum Sharma
Judgment directed that “applications for maintenance under the
HMA, HAMA, DV Act and the CrPC be accompanied with an
affidavit of assets, income and expenditure as prescribed” 6. The
Second case “framed a format of affidavit of assets, income and
expenditure to be filed by both parties at the threshold of a
matrimonial litigation”. This new procedural mandate was further
extended to proceedings under the Special Marriage Act and Indian
Divorce Act, 1869 as well7. In the third case, the Affidavit was
modified and the mandate was extended further to the Guardians
and Wards Act, 1890 and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act,
19568. Hence the Court using its powers under Article 136 read with

6
Kusum Sharma v Mahinder Kumar Sharma (2014) 214 DLT 493
7
Kusum Sharma v Mahinder Kumar Sharma (2015) 217 DLT 706
8
Kusum Sharma V Mahinder Kumar Sharma (MANU/DE/2406/2017)

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Article 142 of the Constitution of India framed guidelines for
finalizing the said formats. The respective guidelines are -;
1. The Affidavit of Disclosure of Assets and Liabilities shall be
filed by the parties in all maintenance proceedings, including
pending proceedings before the concerned Family Court /
District Court / Magistrate’s Court, as the case may be,
throughout the country.
2. The applicant claiming maintenance will be required to file a
concise application accompanied by the Affidavit of Disclosure
of Assets within a maximum period of four weeks the court shall
not grant more than two adjournments .
3. The income of one party is often not within the knowledge of the
other spouse. The Court may invoke Section 106 of the Evidence
Act, 1872 if necessary since the income, assets and liabilities of
the spouse are within the personal knowledge of the party
concerned.
The Apex Court has taken this opportunity to create a right push
in improving the slow and unsatisfactory interim maintenance
filings and adjudication throughout the country by issuing some
really clear and uplifting guidelines that need to be followed by
each and every court of the country. This will help the courts to
make an objective assessment of the interim maintenance that
shall be awarded to the aggrieved party. Moreover, these
affidavits are simple and uniform when it comes to keeping
clarity in such filings throughout the country but the court has
also not been insensitive to the populations from various socio-
economic backgrounds of the country while prescribing such
formats, as three different disclosures have been used to decide
such formats for different categories of people applying for

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 maintenance. Secondly, speeding up the whole maintenance
proceedings that are aimed here by giving strict deadlines in the
filing of applications as well as their disposal by the court, has
also been the right push needed. Although it can be said that even
tighter deadlines were already there in the statute, for example in
Section 24 of HMA and section 125 of the CrPC, the deadline for
disposal of the interim maintenance applications has been 60
days since 2001, and the Supreme Court through this judgment
has allowed four to six months for disposal under any statute
relating to maintenance in India, which is three times the
previous deadline. So, a person who is ignorant of any
practicality can happen to be sad by this direction of the court
and would feel that this would delay the disposal of maintenance
matters. But the practical situations as already mentioned by the
court in the judgment i.e. such disposals even taking years in
several cases, demand a more relaxed yet reasonable window for
disposal of such applications.
 Permanent Alimony
The Court took a sensitive approach especially towards the
respondents when it comes to ordering permanent alimony for the
petitioner as they realized that a lot of factors should mandatorily be
considered while awarding the same and issued some directions, as
they shall then become the law of the land unless overruled or
changed. Directing that the duration for provision of alimony shall
depend on the duration the marriage existed, is so in sync with the
current society, especially the urban areas that it needed to be
spelled out by the Apex Court itself if we want the Family Courts in
India to follow the thought seriously. Moreover, while determining
the child support, keeping in mind the various already existing trusts
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 created for the welfare of the child by the family is also a necessary
direction that was spelled out here. So, the directions in this issue
are balanced and thoughtful as they erase the chances of the
successful attempts made by the petitioner many times to extract the
maximum amount of money from the respondent in cases of failed
marriages. More so, because such acts are done by the petitioner, at
times out of their own will and at times under the influence of a
third person or even the lawyers they trust, just to punish the
respondent out of sheer frustration and anger, also to use the failed
marriage as an opportunity to gain riches, where the reason for the
failure of marriage might not even be the respondent or respondent
entirely.
 Quantum of Maintenance
The core principle used by the Court in awarding the
interim/permanent alimony was that the alimony should be awarded
to provide financial support to the dependant spouse and not to
penalize the other spouse. The factors that shall have weightage in
the determination of the quantum shall be –
1. Status of parties,
2. Reasonable needs of the wife and dependent children,
3. Educational and professional qualifications of the applicant,
4. Whether the wife’s income is sufficient in maintaining her
standard of living as she was having at her matrimonial home,
5. Whether the applicant was employed before marriage,
6. Whether the wife was required to sacrifice her employment to
nurture the family or a child or to take care of some adult/senior
members of the family and
7. Reasonable costs of litigation for a non-working wife.9
9
Manish Jain V Akanksha Jain (2017) 15 SCC 801

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 On the other hand, by referring to the court’s judgment in “Jasbir
Kaur Sehgal Versus District Judge, Dehradun, and Ors.”10 , the apex
court emphasized that apart from the husband’s income, etc., his
liabilities like – expenses for the maintenance of his own self and
the maintenance of his dependent family members whom he is liable
to maintain and other liabilities in law, shall also be considered
while determining the quantum of maintenance to be paid by him.
“the obligation of the husband to maintain stands on a higher
pedestal than the wife”11. In cases when the wife is already earning,
this fact does not become a bar for her claiming maintenance from
her husband. Court relied on Shailja and Anr. Versus Khobbanna 12,
Sunita kachwaha and Ors. Versus Sunil Kachawaha and Ors.13 and
also Sanjay Damodar Kale Versus Kalyani Sanjay Kale 14. Finally,
the court recommended that the quantum should be such that it
enables the wife to maintain herself in reasonable comfort and not
be so extravagant as to drive the husband to destitution and not be
so meager as to drive the wife to penury15.
The Court came up with various factors that should be taken into
consideration while determining the quantum of maintenance of the
wife in a maintenance proceeding. Every detail has been kept in
mind by the apex court while deciding the said factors, such that if
all such information is accurately disclosed by the parties before the
court, then the court shall be in an extremely superior position to
gauge how much of an amount the wife needs as maintenance from
her husband. So, I believe the criteria enumerated by the court in

10
(1997) 7 SCC 7
11
Shamima Farooqui v Shahid Khan (2015) 5 SCC 705.
12
Shailja and Anr. Versus KhobbannaAIR 2017 SC 1174
13
Sunita kachwaha and Ors. Versus Sunil kachawaha and Ors. (2014) 16 SCC 715
14
Sanjay Damodar Kale Versus Kalyani Sanjay Kale 2020 SCC OnLine Bom 694
15
Rajnesh v Neha (n 1)

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 determining the quantum is wholesome and well thought of and
deserves no further comment.
 Date from which maintenance shall be payable
As HMA, HAMA, SMA and DV act are silent on the date of
provision of the maintenance and only CrPC talks about the such
date Realizing the same the apex court started considering various
views on the issue, as follows:
First – It should be given from the date of application
Second – It should be given from the date of the order
Allahabad High Court in Bina Devi Versus State of U.P. 16 in the year
2010 held interestingly that the legislation in S.125 (2) CrPC is
written such that reasons should be recorded if the maintenance is
given from the date of the application. In case the order is silent then
it implies that it is effective from the date of the order, for which
there is no need to record any reasons. Delhi High Court also held
the same interpretation of S.125 (2) CrPC to be true in a revision
proceeding in 201917.
Third – It should be given from the date the summons got served to
the respondent
For the third view, Kerala High Court in S. Radha Kumari Versus
K.M.K. Nair18relying on the view of the Calcutta High Court in
Sameer Banerjee Versus Sujata Banerjee 19. After considering these
extremely diverse views, the Court finally pronounced that
Maintenance should be payable from the date of application. The
Court relying on Badshah V Urmila Badsha Godse very beautifully
mentioned that purposive interpretation must be given to Section

16
Bina Devi Versus State of U.P. and Ors. (2010) 69 ACC 19
17
Lavlesh Shukla v Rukmani (n 30)
18
S. Radha Kumari Versus K.M.K. Nair AIR 1983 Ker 139
19
Samir Banerjee v Sujata Banerjee 70 CWN 633

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 125(2) CrPC and the purpose here is to ensure “Social Justice to the
marginalized sections of society”20
, the Court dug deep and used the purposive construction of
S.125(2) of CrPC and used it to deviate from its literal meaning
which would not allow for payment of maintenance from the date of
application generally. Therefore, using the purposive construction,
Court went beyond the written text of the said provision and
pronounced it afresh with the lens of the Social Justice that our
preamble demands us to endeavor to ensure for the marginalized
sections of India. And for the further part of the pronouncement,
although it would be clear to any reasonable man but the Court still
for the sake of clarity and to leave no stones unturned in joining the
dots, also mentioned that “While dealing with the application of a
destitute wife or hapless children or parents under this provision (S
125(2) CrPC), the court is dealing with a marginalized section of the
society”.
 Enforcement of order of maintenance
Apart from delayed adjudication of maintenance matters, the Court
also made a pronouncement related to yet another challenging issue
i.e. the enforcement of the maintenance orders, as the court noted
that even these applications remain pending for months and
sometimes years as well. Relying on the Bombay High Court in
SushilaVireshChhawda V VireshNagsiChhawda21 that held while
dealing with HMA maintenance proceedings that “The direction of
interim alimony and expenses of litigation under s/24 is one of
urgency and it must be decided as soon as it is raised and the law
takes care that nobody is disabled from prosecuting or defending the

20
Badshah V Urmila Badsha Godse (2014) 1 SCC 188
21
SushilaVireshChhawda V VireshNagsiChhawda (AIR 1996 Bom 94)

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matrimonial case by starvation or lack of funds”, the Supreme Court
emphasized upon various remedies the person has for the execution
of a particular maintenance order.
They are:
“(a) Section 28A of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956 read with
Section 18 of the Family Courts Act, 1984and Order XXI Rule 94 of
the CPC for executing an Order passed U/S 24 of the Hindu
Marriage Act (before the Family Court);
(b) Section 20(6) of the DV Act (before the Judicial Magistrate); and
(c) Section 128 of Cr.P.C. before the Magistrate’s Court.
(d) Section 18 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 provides that orders
passed by the Family Court shall be executable in accordance with
the CPC / Cr.P.C.
(e) Section 125(3) of the Cr. P.C provides that if the party against
whom the order of maintenance is passed fails to comply with the
order of maintenance, the same shall be recovered in the manner as
provided for fines, and the Magistrate may award sentence of
imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month, or until
payment, whichever is earlier”
This part I must say had an educational color to it as the Court has
here just re-iterated the various provisions for execution that are
available under the law. The utility of the same is felt by me as apart
from the law students and junior advocates, even the laymen who
happen to read this judgment or a related written peace anywhere
would become aware of the various methods of execution of the
interim maintenance order they have. Apart from being
enlightening, this knowledge is also empowering for the readers, no
matter who they are.

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 MY CONCLUSION

The judgment covered so many issues their separate analysis has been kept
above along with the related reasoning of the Apex Court. Therefore, here
I will be only giving a conclusive statement to this judgment and nothing
more. This judgment was not only a judgment, it felt like a questionnaire
where the highest court of India had answered a few extremely relevant
legal questions related to matrimonial litigation. Not only that, they have
along with such answers, given the related directions which it found
should be useful to help the future litigation and shall aid in the pursuit of
the needy ones to get the relief they deserve from the law. A lot of things
ranging from overlapping maintenance jurisdictions to the date from which
the maintenance amount shall be awarded have been straightened out by
the court. And the court patiently discussed all the relevant judgments of
various high courts of India with all kinds of conflicting opinions and then
in the end extracted from them the set of directions that hereby become the
law of the land. Such detailed discussion I feel can hardly be shortsighted.
This is a kind of judgment that has the potential to be called a “Landmark”
in not only the maintenance jurisprudence in India but also the
matrimonial jurisprudence. This judgment set straight a lot of procedural
issues as well as legal ambiguities related to the maintenance proceedings
in the Courts of magistrates and Family Courts of the Country. Although
the case at hand related to the maintenance jurisprudence concerning
section 125 of CrPC, the court took an interdisciplinary approach to the
matter in order to provide a holistic solution to the problem rather than just
pass directions limited to the usage of section 125 CrPC. The court looked
beyond the present provisions used by the parties and has framed the
guidelines keeping in mind all the maintenance-related provisions from
other statutes as welL of cases that resemble the present case at hand.

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Therefore, this holistic approach of the court taking not only section 125
Crpc for their perusal but mentioning and including the maintenance-
related provisions from SMA, HAMA, HMA, and DV act along with other
related/relevant statutes also, really broadened the practical range of the
guidelines issued.

I would say the judgment was significant in two ways. Firstly it

straightened out a lot of legal ambiguities by issuing these guidelines and
secondly it was educational in the sense that it makes people aware of the
legal remedies a person has in the event of maintenance and what to do in
case of non-compliance with the maintenance order.

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