Supreme Court holds loan deductions in maintenance cases cannot reduce husband’s primary duty to provide fair maintenance to wife.
Case Name: Deepa Joshi v. Gaurav Joshi
Citation: 2026 INSC 370
Date of Judgment/Order: 16 April 2026
Bench: Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Augustine George Masih
Held: The Supreme Court held that while determining maintenance payable to a wife, deductions from the husband’s salary towards loan repayments and similar financial commitments cannot be treated at par with essential expenditure, particularly where such payments contribute to the creation or acquisition of assets. The Court held that the duty to maintain a spouse is a primary, continuing and legally enforceable obligation, and it cannot be subordinated to voluntary financial arrangements or asset-generating liabilities. Maintenance must be fair, reasonable and sufficient to enable the wife to live with dignity in a standard broadly commensurate with the status of the parties.
Summary: The appellant-wife and respondent-husband were married on 7 May 2023, but the relationship deteriorated soon thereafter and the wife was compelled to live separately at her parental residence without any independent source of income. She filed proceedings under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, seeking maintenance of ₹50,000 per month. The Family Court awarded ₹8,000 per month, taking note of the respondent’s salary deductions, and the Uttarakhand High Court enhanced the amount to ₹15,000 per month from the date of application. Before the Supreme Court, the wife argued that the courts below had wrongly reduced the husband’s effective income by giving undue weight to deductions arising from loan repayments and voluntary financial obligations. The Supreme Court relied on Chaturbhuj v. Sita Bai, Shamima Farooqui v. Shahid Khan and Rajnesh v. Neha to reiterate that maintenance is meant to prevent destitution and must not be illusory. Since the respondent was employed as a Manager with Canara Bank and had a gross monthly income of ₹1,15,670, the Court held that asset-generating repayments could not substantially dilute his real earning capacity for fixing maintenance.
Decision: The Supreme Court modified the judgment of the Uttarakhand High Court dated 26 June 2025 and enhanced the maintenance payable to the appellant-wife from ₹15,000 per month to ₹25,000 per month. The Court directed that arrears, if any, shall be cleared within three months and that monthly maintenance shall be paid on or before the 7th day of each calendar month. The appeal was disposed of in these terms and all pending applications were also disposed of.