In a relief to the wife of a 54-year-old best-selling author, a sessions court in Dindoshi has asked the man to pay Rs. 75,000 monthly as interim maintenance to her, calling the Rs. 30,000 that a magistrate court directed him to pay, as “meagre” considering his earning capacity.
The couple had married in 1997 and the wife started living separately since 2012 after two incidents of assault. She had also claimed that he accused her of having an extramarital affair.
The court said that the husband in this case is an intellectual person and also the author of a bestselling book, which shows his capacity to earn money. It also referred to his submission that by his earnings he made the inxvestment in jewellery, which amounts to Rs. 6 crores in 2012, including his mother’s jewellery.
Additional Sessions Judge Shrikant Y. Bhosale said that this gives an idea of his income and that from his investment and intellectual capacity, it is easy to draw the inference that he earns in lakhs monthly.
In the background, it called the Rs. 30,000 awarded by a magistrate court to the wife as “meagre” and enhanced the amount to Rs. 75,000 monthly.
The court also noted that the couple held foreign citizenships, ran various companies, frequently travelled abroad and were educated and wealthy.
The husband is looking after the higher studies in the US of their two elder children, while the younger child is with the wife. The court noted that it cannot be ignored that the author is incurring huge expenses for the two children studying abroad, but is not providing any amount to the youngest child living with the wife.
Before the magistrate court, the wife had claimed Rs. 2.5 lakhs as interim maintenance and Rs. 5 lakhs as compensation for domestic violence. Regarding the compensation not being awarded, the sessions court said that she had not produced evidence that she had incurred financial losses because of domestic violence.
