A division bench of Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Donadi Ramesh passed the order on an appeal filed by Shree Rajpati against monthly maintenance of Rs 3,000 awarded to his daughter-in-law Bhuri Devi by a family court in Agra.

The court said that in the societal context in which law must be applied, it is not uncommon for widowed women to live with her parents, for varied reasons and circumstances. “Merely because the woman may have made that choice cannot be concluded to mean that she had separated from her matrimonial home without reasonable cause or that she would have sufficient means to survive on her own”, the court added.

Bhuri Devi’s husband, who worked as a daily wager in the state irrigation department, was murdered in 1999. She claimed that she had no source of income and had not remarried and therefore sought monthly maintenance from her father-in-law since he had sufficient agricultural holding to which her husband may have remained entitled had he been alive.

The court further rejected the submission of the father-in-law that Bhuri Devi had remarried and worked as a ‘cook’ in a college on the grounds that he failed to provide any proof in this regard. Further, the court upheld the family court’s observation that the certificate issued by the principal of the college was a mute document because it did not disclose the monthly income or remuneration payable to Bhuri Devi even if it were to be accepted that she was engaged as ‘cook’ in the said educational institution.

However, the court, in its decision dated Aug 31, noted that the father-in-law was 70 years old and was himself dependent on his sons. Thus, the court partly allowed the appeal and upheld the interim order which reduced the amount of maintenance from Rs 3,000 to Rs 1,000 per month.