KUSUM SHARMA Vs. MAHINDER KUMAR SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The requirements of justice give an occasion for the development of new dimension of justice by evolving juristic principles for doing complete justice according to the current needs of the Society. The quest for justice in the process of administration of justice occasions the evolution of new dimensions of the justice. J.S. Verma, J., in his Article "New Dimensions of Justice", (1997) 3 SCC J-3 observed that:-

(2.) Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act empowers the Court to award maintenance pendente lite and litigation expenses to a Section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 party who has no independent income sufficient for his/her support in proceedings pending under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, having regard to the income of the parties. The Proviso to Section 24 provides that application under Section 24 shall be disposed of within 60 days of the date of service of notice on the opposite party.

(3.) Maintenance is not merely a legal right. It is part and parcel of basic human right. For weaker sections, it is a problem in the sense that their very survival rest on the maintenance. The object behind the provision is two-fold: firstly, to prevent vagrancy resulting from stained relation between the husband and wife, and secondly, to ensure that the indigent litigating spouse is not handicapped in defending or prosecuting the case due to want of money. On the breakdown of the marriage, it often so happens that the husband pays nothing for the support of his wife and children and the wife has to fall back upon her parents and relatives to fend her immediate needs. Reasonableness too demands extension of such a relief in favour of a needy spouse. Had not the parties drifted away from one another, the spouse from whom support is sought would have in any case supported the other spouse entailing financial burden. Hence, it is but natural to make the husband bear the cost of maintaining his wife pending disposal of any dispute until some permanent relief is provided to her.