The Family court had granted an amount for my kids as maintenance, however I had continued to pay for the School Fees / Medical / celebrations / and lot many more other direct expenses and did it all in shear love and affection towards my children, now after almost 7 years, their mother had filed a pet. stating that I am an unfit father and has not paid any thing till date against maintenance of the children, and her council smartly put it across that I was to pay her and not do any thing directly, even IF any thing has been done - it was done on his own but has failed to comply with the maintenance order, hence have to pay the entire amount from the day of separation. Is there any Order from any court, where at least the School fees is said to be / can be considered to be taken into account as maintenance as that is the only one which I have paid through my bank account.
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1)it is necessary to peruse court order passed by family court
2) if you have paid directly it would not be compliance of maintenance order
3)you can take the plea that amount paid directly towards school fees of children should be considered while passing orders of amount payable by you
1. Yes, school fees is indeed considered to be part of maintenance and if you highlight this cost the court would surely consider the same while fixing the quantum of maintenance.
2. So if you think the order of maintenance is exaggerated or beyond your means then you can challenge this in higher court.
3. The thumb rule of giving maintenance is generally 1/3 to 1/5th of your income.
So decode accordingly.
1. The Court has directed ou to pay for the maintenance of your child.
2. The Court has never directed you to pay the said amount to your wife.
3. Your child is studying in a school where fees are to be paid,
4. You have paid the said fees directly to he school being part of her maintenance which has never been objected by her mother.
5. You have a very strong ground to contest the said argument and get favourable order.
The school fee paid directly o the school cannot be termed as maintenance payment.
You have not mentioned whether the court has ordered payment of maintenance charges and if you have paid or not the amount ordered by court.
If it is just an application filed recently by your wife, then dont worry about its contents, challenge the same on merits.
You can present your argument stating that you have been maintaining the school fee of your children.
