Husband Hit with ₹5 Crore One-Time Permanent Alimony and ₹1 Crore for Son in Supreme Court Ruling – A Game-Changer for Divorce Settlements

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): On December 10, the Supreme Court directed a husband to provide a one-time permanent alimony of Rs. 5 Crores to his wife upon the dissolution of their marriage. The bench, consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B. Varale, also highlighted the husband’s obligation to support their son and instructed him to set aside Rs. 1 Crore for his adult son's maintenance and financial security. The couple had been living separately for nearly two decades after six years of marriage. While the husband accused the wife of being hypersensitive and treating his family poorly, the wife claimed that the husband had mistreated her. Given their prolonged separation and the lack of any chance for reconciliation, the court concluded that the marriage was "irretrievably broken down."

Although there were other issues such as jurisdiction and interim maintenance under the Hindu Marriage Act, the court focused primarily on the matter of permanent alimony. To arrive at the Rs. 5 Crore alimony amount, the court referred to earlier rulings in Rajnesh v. Neha (2021) and Kiran Jyot Maini v. Anish Pramod Patel (2024), which laid out several factors for consideration. These included the social and financial status of both parties, the reasonable needs of the wife and any dependent children, the employment and financial status of each party, the wife’s independent income or assets, the standard of living enjoyed by the wife in the matrimonial home, any sacrifices made by the wife for the family, reasonable litigation costs for a non-working wife, and the financial capacity of the husband.

The court emphasized that permanent alimony should not penalize the husband but should ensure the wife’s decent standard of living. In this case, the wife was unemployed and had worked as a homemaker, while the husband earned a salary of Rs. 10 to 12 Lacs per month in a managerial role at a foreign bank. Taking this into account, the court decided that an amount of Rs. 5 Crores was appropriate as a one-time settlement. The decision was supported by the petitioner’s legal team, including Senior Advocate Mukta Gupta and others, while the respondent’s side was represented by Senior Advocate Sanjay Jain and his team.