Court should not be allowed to be used to extort money, says judge; junks woman maintenance plea

New Delhi: The forum of court should not be allowed to be used by one party to extort money from the other, a Delhi court has observed while dismissing a woman's plea seeking grant of interim maintenance from her husband.

Judge Madhu Jain junked the plea and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the woman, saying it was filed only to blackmail the husband.

"Forum of the court should not be allowed to be used by one party to extort money from the other party. Wife is highly qualified and even before filing the petition (for interim maintenance), she was working and earning. Now, there is no reason as to why she has stopped working and earning. Application has been filed only to blackmail the respondent in order to extort money," the court said.

It said that nowadays section 125 (maintenance of wives, children and parents) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is being used by parties only to blackmail or to extort money from other parties.

"It seems that nowadays Section 125 CrPC is used by parties only to blackmail other parties or to extort the money. Present case is a glorious example of this fact. Wife is highly qualified and at present she is pursuing her research in the UK but till date she has not disclosed her stipend which she must be getting while

pursuing her Doctorate," said the court.

The court noted that the wife was married in 2012 and was living with her husband in the UK.

The woman came to India in 2014 and filed two criminal cases against her husband and his family members who were residing in India, alleging domestic violence and attempt to rape, the plea said.