MADAN KUMAR SATPATHY Vs. PRIYADARSHINI PATI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision by the petitioner-husband seeks to assail the impugned judgment dtd. 14/9/2023 passed by the learned Judge, Family Court, Rourkela in Criminal Proceeding No. 05 of 2014 directing the petitioner-husband to pay a sum of Rs.8,000.00 per month to the OP-wife for her maintenance in an application U/S.125 of the CrPC.

(2.) Heard, Mr. Anam Charan Panda, learned counsel for the petitioner-husband and Mr. Ramesh Chandra Ojha, learned counsel for the OP-wife in the matter and perused the record.

(3.) On a careful scrutiny of the impugned judgment together with the material placed on record, it appears to the Court that the relationship between the parties is never disputed and it is accepted that the petitioner is the husband of OP, but due to dissension, the OP has filed an application for grant of maintenance to her to be paid by the petitionerhusband. In deciding the matter, the learned trial Court has assessed the income of the petitionerhusband by taking into account his admitted net home take salary at Rs.32,541.00 per month, out of the gross salary of Rs.45,362.00. It is also not in dispute that the petitioner-husband has a dependent mother. It is found from the impugned judgment that the OP-wife has filed a disclosure affidavit showing her assets and liabilities in terms of the law laid down by the Apex Court in Rajnesh vs. Neha and another; (2021) 2 SCC 324 and in such disclosure affidavit, the OP-wife has described herself as jobless, but she in her cross- examination at paragraph-25 has admitted that she was working in Grihasthi Udyog Pvt. Ltd., Rourkela in an occasion, and she had stated in an interview that previously she was working in NDTV. It cannot and should not be denied that the OP-wife is a Science Graduate having Post Graduation Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication and the learned trial Court after taking note of these facts has also concluded that the OP-wife is a well-educated lady and can support herself financially by doing a suitable job, but at present the OP-wife is not working anywhere to earn her livelihood. The aforesaid facts go to show that not only OP-wife is a well-educated lady, but also she was previously working in some media houses, however, she has definite prospect to work and earn for her sustenance.