Lack Of Harmony With In-Laws Or Husband's Attention Towards Parents Cannot Justify Wife's Separate Living U/S 125(4) CrPC: Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Court set aside maintenance to wife who levelled false 498-A prosecution and unsubstantiated allegations of illicit relationship against husband, holding such conduct constitutes disqualifying cruelty, while enhancing children's maintenance.

Update: 2026-07-10 06:33 GMT

The Madhya Pradesh High Court, Indore Bench has held that a wife's discomfort with her husband's attention towards his parents and family members, or lack of harmony with in-laws, cannot in law constitute "sufficient reason" for her to live separately and thereby claim maintenance under Section 125 CrPC

The Court further said that where a wife lodges a false criminal prosecution under Section 498-A IPC resulting in acquittal, and levels unsubstantiated, character-assassinating allegations of an illicit relationship against her husband, such conduct amounts to the gravest form of mental cruelty and squarely attracts the disqualification under Section 125(4) CrPC, which bars a wife who refuses to live with her husband without sufficient reason from claiming maintenance.

Justice Jai Kumar Pillai observed, “This reasoning adopted by the learned trial court is patently erroneous and suffers from severe perversity. In the realm of matrimonial jurisprudence, a lack of harmony with in-laws or a husband dedicating attention and care to his parents and family members cannot, under any circumstance, be construed as a justifiable or sufficient ground for a wife to abandon the matrimonial home and subsequently claim maintenance”.

“On the contrary, the record affirmatively reflects that nonapplicant No. 1 subjected the revisionist to severe mental cruelty, lodged a false criminal prosecution under Section 498-A IPC resulting in acquittal, and leveled baseless, character-assassinating allegations regarding illicit relations”, the Bench further said.

Advocate Nilesh Dave appeared for the petitioner and Advocate Neelesh Agrawal appeared for the respondent.

The applicant and non-applicant No. 1 were legally wedded husband and wife, with non-applicants 2 and 3 being their minor children. Disputes arose leading the wife to reside with her parents, following which she filed an application under Section 125 CrPC seeking maintenance for herself and the children.

The husband contended she had voluntarily left, concealed the birth of their second child, and was earning independently from a beauty parlour. It was undisputed that the wife had earlier lodged an FIR under Section 498-A IPC against the husband and his family, resulting in the family members being discharged by the High Court in 2016 and the husband being acquitted by the trial court in 2019.

The Family Court, Ratlam, by an order dated March 08, 2022, allowed the maintenance application, directing the husband to pay Rs. 10,000 per month to the wife and Rs. 5,000 per month each to the two children. The husband challenged this order in revision under Section 19(4) of the Family Courts Act, 1984.

The Court noted that connected civil proceedings for restitution of conjugal rights had returned specific findings that the wife had deserted the husband without sufficient cause for over four years and had levelled an unsubstantiated allegation of an illicit relationship between the husband and his sister-in-law, which she admitted during cross-examination she could not prove beyond her own assertion.

Applying Vijaykumar Ramchandra Bhate v. Neela Vijaykumar Bhate (2003) 6 SCC 334 on character assassination as cruelty, and Rina Kumari v. Dinesh Kumar Mahto (2025) 3 SCC 33 on the scope of Section 125(4), the Court held the wife's conduct disqualified her from maintenance, while clarifying that such disqualification could not extend to the innocent minor children.

Accordingly, the revision was partly allowed, and the direction to pay Rs. 10,000 per month to the wife was set aside, and her maintenance application was dismissed. The maintenance for each child was enhanced from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,500 per month, payable from the date of the original application before the Family Court, with amounts already paid to be adjusted against arrears, to be cleared within three months.