By Ajay Kumar
A woman in Jharkhand filed a Right to Information (RTI) application to counter her husband’s claims of being unemployed, which subsequently led to an increase in the monthly maintenance that a family court had earlier given her. The Jharkhand High Court has now asked her husband to pay a total of Rs 90,000 per month in maintenance. This includes Rs 50,000 to his ex-wife and Rs 40,000 in child support for their autistic son, all after an RTI revealed his actual annual income to be Rs 27 lakh, a report stated. The woman had challenged the order of a Ranchi family court, which granted her a one-time alimony of Rs 12 lakh and Rs 8,000 monthly for the child’s maintenance. The woman alleged she endured domestic abuse and dowry demands early in the marriage, reported News18. She reportedly claimed to have been abandoned along with her son, born in 2012 and diagnosed with autism. With the order of the family court in place, and the husband claiming that he was unemployed, the woman filed an RTI. Her team then presented the reply from the Income Tax Department showing that her husband was employed at an IT firm in Mumbai and drawing Rs 2.3 lakh monthly after deductions. The Jharkhand High Court criticised the family court for accepting the man’s affidavit as it is without further verification. The court called the man’s alleged abandonment of his son “not just a moral failure but a legal default.” A Division Bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Rajesh Kumar emphasised that a child with 75% intellectual disability requires long-term specialised care. Acknowledging the mother’s responsibilities, the court accepted her submission of Rs 53,000 per month to cover therapy, special education and structured healthcare, the News18 report added.