• Alimony and maintenance

Hello honorable lawyers, 
 I am a doctor by profession, born and brought up in Mumbai, and got married 8 yrs back in a typical marwari family at Delhi . I have 6 year old son. My husband is the only son and have a joint business with his father. I was subjected to lot of mental torture and physical abuse to the extent of getting physically hit too. We both started leaving separately also, but my husband blamed me and has physically badly hitted me many times. 
I left my matrimonial house in 2012 and came to Mumbai . Here after 6 mths, my husband falsely promised me that, he will shift in Mumbai and we took a house on rent. Since I joined job over here, I told him that I will take care of all expenses to the time you are settled and till date I am paying everything for all expenses including child, rent, etc. 
But he used to stay here hardly for a week, once in two months. He used to instigate me for very minor issues and when I used to get angry, he used to record, without my knowledge, which I came to know later, and told me that he will file mental cruelty on me. But like stupid, I never collected any evidences of his extreme physical and mental torture. 
Now he wants to seperate and me too as I dont trust him at all. I want to know, that he has shown himself as employee in his business earning meagre 10-12k. Their office, 3 houses, all are in my in laws name and nothing on his name.. 
So can I get alimony from him and how much can I expect, as he may show I am earning better than him plus nothing in his name. Plsssssssss help me.
Asked 8 years ago in Family Law
Religion: Hindu

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17 Answers

1) you are highly qualified doctor

2) you wont get any maintenance

3) but you can claim maintenance for your son .

4) you can also file domestic violence case against your husband and seek right to stay in matrimonial home or seek alternative accommodation .

5) also seek compensation for mental torture undergone by you .

6) you cna also file 498A case against your husband for acts of cruelty inflicted on you

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

from what you have said, you have a good ground on cruelty to file for divorce, and domestic violence against your husband.

as regards alimony, you will be entitled to get about 5000/- per month for the support of your child, nothing for you because you earn better than him and live independently as well.

Kiran N. Murthy
Advocate, Bangalore
1298 Answers
194 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) what is your husband share in the business?

2) i s it a limited company or partnership firm ?

3) you stated that your husband was only an employee of business and earning Rs 12,000 per month

4) dont agree for divorce till you get your pound of flesh

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

you said that he earns between 10 to 12000/- p.m from his own export business. what is the actual turnover, profit after tax, if you have audited bank accounts of this business of your husband then obtain it and file it the court will consider this information to decide on the alimony for you as well.

Kiran N. Murthy
Advocate, Bangalore
1298 Answers
194 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

At the time of filing for divorce (if you want to) you can claim alimony. What kind of business he's running? We can always quote approximate profit he must be earning in a month and accordingly your alimony money will be decided. Alimony is quite different from maintenance.

Also since you have the custody of your son you can claim maintenance for him irrespective of the fact that you are earning u/s. 125 of Cr. Pc

Even if you do not have any proofs of his physical or mental violence still we can file a case.

Where in Mumbai you stay?

Regds,

Adv. Payal

Payal Arora
Advocate, Pune
379 Answers
18 Consultations

4.5 on 5.0

1. If both of you wish to separate you may do so by filing for mutual divorce.

2. Since you are earning on your own you are disqualified from claiming alimony for yourself from him. However, you can claim heavy compensation from him for the physical and mental abuse you have been subjected to by him.

3. You can claim financial support for your son from your husband by filing a case for maintenance against him.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Since you are doctor you are not entitled for maintenance for yourself. However your child is. So file maintenance case under PWDV Act.

Your husband is s tough nut to crack. So file criminal case u/s 498A, 406 IPC in Mumbai against his tortures. Once he will have to run around courts in Mumbai he will come to your terms.

Devajyoti Barman
Advocate, Kolkata
22779 Answers
484 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1.Your husband is clverer than you,

2. He has made documents to show as evidence that he is earning only Rs.12 k whereas you are drawing much more than him,

3. So, he is unable to pay you compensation and you are also not eligible for claiming maintenance,

4. However, file a DV case claiming maintenance for your son,

5. Also file a Divorce Suit claiming aequate amount as compensation/alimony.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. Engage a detective agency to collect copies of I.Tax returns of your husband and also list of all her assets and other incomes,

2. It will show you his declared and undeclared income to enable you to claim adequate maintenance for your son and also enough compensation/alimony for you.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hi, as per recent supreme court judgement well educated lady can not claim maintenance and she can able to earn herself and she can't sit idle and she can't claim maintenance through her husband.

2. It is the duty of the husband to maintain his wife and children but if they prove that you are capable of earning then you will not able to get any alimony from your husband.

Pradeep Bharathipura
Advocate, Bangalore
5604 Answers
335 Consultations

4.5 on 5.0

The disadvantage in your side is that your a professional doctor and also are gainfully employed hence you will not be eligible for monthly maintenance or alimony but your son is very much eligible to get maintenance from his father till he attains the age of majority. The quantum of maintenance will depend on what you claim based on the income of your husband you provide before the court.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84711 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. Has any order been passed by the Court directing your husband to pay you interim maintenance? If ye, then the hearing of the case can not move further until the interim maintenance wit arrears is paid to you by your husband.

2. Charging Rs.50 K for filing a case is not very unreasonable. The lawyer will certainly charge fees additionally for filing another case being divorce case against your husband.

3. You shall have to pursue your cases with maximum alert keeping your eyes on every legal move of your husband.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) courts are overburdened hence grant of interim reliefs take time

2) you would get ordersfir maintenance from date of filingof application

3) legal fees vary depending upon lawyer engaged by you

4) for filing divorce petition you have to pay additional fees

5) continue your DV case

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Each case is different. If you would like to file divorce case, you may have to pay additional fee for that case.

If you dont trust your lawyer anymore, you may change the lawyer but since you have given a good fees to her it would be better that you continue with her itself.

You should have got the interim maintenance i the court had passed an order to that effect.

Verify if your advocate had filed a separate petition seeking interim maintenance along with the main petition for maintenance under section 125 cr.p.c.

Though the situation would be very desperate or depressed you should not give it up at the fag end, fight for your rights till you succeed.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84711 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) lawyer cannot charge percentage of amount received by you . It is illegal

2) lawyers charge fir drafting and filing petition, predate appearance , drafting charges for filing affidavit of evidence etc

3) you can withdraw your case if you so desire

4) it would not affect you adversely

5) youcan file for divorce and seek interim maintenance , alimony

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

a).There is no standard fee structure for lawyers for which some unscrupulous lawyers extract money from the clients in different ways. You shall have to choose your lawyer from the poll of available lawyers.

b) No. There will be no negative impact for your withdrawing the DV case on the case filed by your husband, if any in future.

c) You should file a divorce suit to terminate the matrimonial relationship with your husband and move on further in your life.

d) You can google search your lawyer or select the expert from this portal.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

a) I wanted to know whether this is the general fee structure.

There is no such system called general fee structure.

The more you are attracted towards the pomp and show displayed by an advocate namely, number of juniors, stenographer, clerks, rich looking highly furnished office atmosphere with air conditioning, etc, the more you will be tend to take such people for granted and may shell out fee without asking questions or even without knowing what exactly happens in your case before court.

A good and experienced lawyer will have proper discussions with his clients, take instructions and suggest the solutions, take their opinion and consent before proceeding with the case.

This will be a healthy situation if you want to fight it out legally and get justice.

Now you decide

(b) suppose if I discontinue this case and in the future my husband puts some case on me, will my discontinuing case have any kind of negative impact that time.

There will be an adverse impact when you fight and challenge the cases he may file against you in the future if you stop attending this case of withdraw the same midway, so think about the pros and cons before rushing up with any such decision.

(c) if I continue case what should be my next step. Is their any benefit in DV case just for some small amount after paying so much and mental stress. Or will divorce case be more appropriate

Divorce is a different relief to that of DV case relief. You can run both simultaneously..

(d) any suggestion for good lawyer

The second lawyer who you approached also does not seems to be cooperative to you or may be of any kind of help to you, hence may try to locate a genuine lawyer.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84711 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

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