The Supreme Court has ruled that alimony should not be considered a means of equalising property between husband and wife. The top court gave this ruling in a recent case which involved a couple’s divorce after a short-lived marriage.
An Indian-American citizen, operating a successful IT consultancy in America, married a woman from India on 31 July 2021. This was his second marriage, following a divorce from his first wife, to whom he had paid an alimony of Rs 500 crore
His second marriage also ended in divorce after a mere few months of cohabitation. Subsequently, the second wife demanded alimony equivalent to the sum received by the first wife.
The husband appealed to the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution, seeking annulment of the marriage. However, the Supreme Court has ordered him to pay Rs 12 crore to his second wife, who had contested his appeal, demanding permanent alimony equal to that received by the first wife.
According to a report in the Times of India, a bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Pankaj Mittal expressed displeasure over a demand for equal alimony for a second wife.
They stated that the second wife, who spent only a short time with the husband, cannot demand equal alimony compared to the first wife.
In a detailed 73-page judgement, Justice Nagarathna wrote, “We have serious objections to the trend that alimony is considered a means of equalising property between husband and wife.