Employment of estranged wife cannot be a ground for a husband to escape from his duty of providing expenses for the upbringing of their children, living separately with the mother, a city court has ruled.
The verdict rejected the plea of the father, who was shying away from meeting the demands raised by his 13-year-old daughter staying with the mother since birth.
Both her parents have been working with the Delhi police as sub-inspectors.
“The father and the mother of the child both are working and the father is not expected to shy away from contributing for upbringing of the child,” additional sessions judge Rajeev Bansal said.
“If mother of the child is employed as a sub-inspector in Delhi police, petitioner who is father of the child, is also employed as sub-inspector. Then why should only the mother bear the expenses incurred in the upbringing of a child,” the judge asked and directed the father to provide expenses for the education of the teenage daughter.
Bansal passed the verdict on an appeal by the father, challenging a lower court’s order directing him to pay `4,000 as maintenance to his child.
The lower court had ordered him to pay maintenance on a plea filed by his daughter through her mother.
He approached the sessions court challenging this order on the ground that his estranged wife was herself employed.
He said the mother was also getting ration-money and reimbursement of educational expenses for the child.
The sessions court, however, dismissed his plea and said, “Where both the parents of a child are working, it is not the duty of one parent only to rear up the child. On the contrary, the duty is equally on both the parents.”