Permanent alimony should not be penal: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said the award of maintenance or permanent alimony should not be penal, rather it should be for the purposes of ensuring a decent standard of living for the wife.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prashant Kumar Mishra dissolved the 2015 marriage of a man and a woman and directed the husband to pay Rs 2 crores to the wife as a one time settlement.

The court used its power under Article 142 of the Constitution to dissolve the marriage as the parties cohabitated for less than one year and lived separately for the last 9 years.

"This court in a catena of judgments over the years has exercised its inherent powers to dissolve a marriage under Article 142 of the Constitution where it finds that the marriage is dead, unworkable, beyond repair, emotionally perished and has thus irretrievably broken down, even though no grounds for divorce as provided in the applicable law are made out in the facts of the case," the bench pointed out.

In the case, the wife, who worked as HR head in a firm, sought Rs 5 -7 crores as one time settlement while the husband, who was Vice President in a private bank, expressed willingness to pay just Rs 50 lakh.

After going through the assets, income and liabilities of both the parties, the bench said the demand made by the wife is exceptionally high but, at the same time, the amount offered by the husband is insufficient in the broader rubric of maintenance considerations.

The court kept in mind the totality of the circumstances, the social and financial status of the parties, their current employments as well as future prospects, standards of living, and their obligations, liabilities, and other expenses, to fix Rs 2 crore as permanent alimony to be paid by the husband.