CIBIL – A New Weapon To Fight Maintenance Cases | Shonee Kapoor

Finding this one was pure providence. In the Kusum Sharma judgment, the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi had mandated that an affidavit from both parties should accompany all maintenance and divorce cases filed in Delhi. This exhaustive affidavit covers many aspects of a person’s income, education, employment and lifestyle. While delivering this judgment, Justice J R Midha intended to revamp the litigation for just, proper and timely disposal of cases of maintenance and divorce. It tried to bring uniformity in all courts dealing with maintenance or divorce in Delhi. The intent was that if the parties were asked to furnish information about their income and expenditure, the claims would be more truthful. This would lead to a reduction in unwarranted proceedings and expedite the valid ones. It was also presumed to save time and energy as the courts could avoid calling for bank records, income proofs and other material evidence. The import of the judgment was on expeditious maintenance and timely filing of replies and replications. It also included an undertaking from each litigant that they could be prosecuted for perjury if they filed a false affidavit. The detailed judgment can be read here. However, merely passing this judgment did not mean that litigants would start approaching court with clean intent.

Even today, delays in filing Written Statements, rejoinders, affidavits, etc., are the norm in Delhi courts. Truth is an exception, especially in maintenance proceedings. Recently, one of our brethren posed a query to me. Though the CIBIL report is among the mandatory documents to be filed along with all maintenance/ divorce proceedings in Delhi, it must be complied with. Perhaps because in such a detailed affidavit, this minute detail is easily overlooked. Based on this new information, we tried to find what the CIBIL report contains and discovered it to be a very exhaustive document. Let me give some background on what CIBIL is.

Most people understand CIBIL to be a credit rating agency that gives loan providers information about a person’s credit history. Several leading websites define it as such. According to WIKIPEDIA: TransUnion CIBIL Limited (Formerly Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited) is India’s first Credit Information Company (CIC), which was founded in August 2000. TransUnion CIBIL collects and maintains records of an individual’s payments for loans and credit cards. These records are submitted to TransUnion CIBIL by member banks and credit institutions every month. This information is then used to create Credit Information Reports (CIR) and credit scores, which credit institutions provide to help evaluate and approve loan applications. TransUnion CIBIL was designed to play a critical role in India’s financial system, helping loan providers manage their businesses. However, the CIBIL report goes much beyond the same. It contains the following information:

1. CIBIL Score: Your current credit score; based on your previous credit behavior.
2. Personal Information: Name, date of birth, gender, PAN no. etc.
3. Contact Information: Name, Telephone Nos. and email address(s); Your Employer Name and address; wherever applicable Furthermore, it contains two very important components that most people are not aware of:

1. Income Information: Monthly/ Annual income reported by the Banks and Financial Institutions. The employment information section contains information on your occupation, revenue, Gross/Net as reported by the lender for a particular credit account, and the reporting date. These banks and financial institutions update this information based on the time when certain credit facilities became available. The information may also relate to any ITR, form 16, salary certificate, etc, which a person has deposited with the Bank or Financial Institution.
2. Account Information: CIBIL report not only contains the information on all your credit accounts, but it also holds the information on how many Bank Accounts a person maintains. When one knows about the certainness of bank accounts, the same can be called to court.

Now, who can have a CIBIL Score? Your CIBIL profile starts when you enter a relationship with any Bank or Lender. However, Your CIBIL score begins when you avail of a loan or take a credit card. Once you avail either of them, then they remain in the database. Banks and financial institutions submit the data every month. By and large, every PAN cardholder would have a CIBIL Score and a corresponding CIBIL report. What can CIBIL Score and Report do in a maintenance case? Suppose one can’t have access to this report himself. In that case, he can seek the court’s assistance in finding the true nature of the spouse’s income by filing relevant applications like CrPC 91 for maintenance cases under DV & CrPC 125 and thus help the court decide the actual quantum of maintenance. Can this information hurt the husband? Yes, it can, but only if they have not come clean to the court. Kusum Sharma Judgment is applicable in Delhi; will CIBIL help in other states? Courts everywhere are held to dispense justice. If your wife has withheld information about her income and assets and you take it to court, the court would likely go for fact-finding. This will make her come up with correct information about her income and assets. You may be interested in reading Landmark Maintenace Judgments in Favour of Men by clicking HERE. The Template of the CrPC 91 application can be found here