The maintenance of child is not a matter concerned with divorce of parents. The child can claim upbringing by father as entitled to him under section 20 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act,1956 .
In the fitness of things, the Delhi High Court has been quit upfront to asset emphatically, elegantly and eloquently in a well-written, well articulated, well reasoned and well-worded judgment titled Fateh Saharan VS. Rohit Saharan that was finally delivered on January 14, 2022.
The plea was heard by a bench of two judges consisting of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh. The plea was filed by a minor child who was entitled to claim maintenance from the respondent(Rohit Saharan – father) for his upbringing as such a child is not bound by the divorce settlement regarding maintenances between his parents.
Fateh Saharan (appellant) was aggrieved by the grant of interim maintenance by the family court which was not sufficient for his basic livelihood.
He was a school-going child whose school fees were Rs.25000 and as the maintenance cost was only Rs.15000, he was not able to maintain himself.
The mother of Fateh Saharan was earlier working as a school teacher at Delhi Public School(DPS) but due to Covid-19 she lost her job and the only income source for both of them was closed and it was difficult to maintain their cost of living.
We may also observe that when the respondent’s spouse that that is the mother of the appellant obtained the divorce by mutual consent, the maintenance was fixed in respect of the appellant’s minor child at the rate of 5000/- per month. It goes without saying that the appellant being a minor, is not bound by that settlement, and he is entitled to claim maintenance for himself for his upbringing from the respondent his father.
It was observed that (Rohit Saharan) has not revealed his real Income Tax Returns(ITR’s) as his earning is more as it had been seemed because apart from his agricultural income the only mentioned income by the respondent, but he has been deriving his rental income from a property which is not a part of agricultural income.
Later, the respondent was requested to file an affidavit for the same. He submitted the affidavit dated 3/12/21 claiming that the land has been leased out by the respondent, to a tenant, from which the rent has been derived, which is owned by the respondent’s father. The learned counsel for the appellant has vehemently challenged the averments made in the said affidavit has deliberately mis-stated facts before this court in this court in this regard.
The court with no doubt states that the interim maintenance of Rs.15000 is to be increased to Rs.25000 as the school fees is in that range and has to pay Rs.25000 per month to the appellant until further orders or any decision by the family court in this case.
No adjournments shall be sought by the parties, nor should either of the parties be granted any undue adjournments by the learned family court, and we request the learned family court to dispose of the petition pending before it under section 20 of the Hindu adoptions and maintenance act,1956 within next one year.
Both parties state that they shall produce a complete copy of their passports before the learned family court for its examination the same shall be produced before the learned family, court on the next date fixed before it, which we are informed, is 23/02/2022.
The appeal stands disposed of in the aforesaid terms.
The sum up of this judgment was that there is the complete right of minor child to claim upbringing by the father and the child is not bound by the divorce settlement regarding maintenance between his parents. So there should not be any more misgiving on it.
The Delhi high court has in simple, straight and powerful language made it absolutely clear that a father is bound to maintain his minor child and the minor child is fully entitled to claim maintenance from his father for his upbringing as long he is minor. This is what really forms the bottom line also of this judgment.
According to the laws, the father has a right of duty of care towards his wife and child because their source of income depends upon the income of the father because of this right the child can claim his maintenance apart from the concerns of divorce of parents and also the amount decided at that time.
Hence, the child has the complete right for claiming maintenance.