Reduce Maintenance: How To Reduce Maintenance

Maintenance is a noun that, in legal parlance, means the amount provided to distressed wives, children, or parents for their upkeep, support, or subsistence. This is a benevolent provision of law, as the law says that no person shall leave his wife, children or old parents at the mercy of others and unattended by him; he should be legally bound to maintain the same. This used to be the moral responsibility of the man in old times. However, some men did not adhere to their moral responsibility, and thus, the law was made to make it a legal responsibility that could be enforced as criminal liability.

As happens with most provisions of law. Certain unscrupulous people misuse the laws made for weaker sections. Unscrupulous women have also misused the provision of maintenance to such a proportion that it has now become legal plunder.

Be Genuine with your Documents: Always be upfront and genuine with all particulars of your income. Honesty goes a long way in gaining the court’s empathy or approval. Many people often go to court by hiding their income or showing the income as negligible. The courts throw such claims out of the window. Would you as a person believe if someone comes up and says, “Till yesterday, I used to earn lakhs of rupees, and suddenly, at the start of the litigation, I became a pauper.” So, how would the court believe the same? The courts have the same view in terms of the income of females. And God forbid, if the truth gets revealed someday, you have had it.

Be Diligent in your Approach: The courts are slow, and the process drags on for months and sometimes years. Remain vigilant and treat every court date as a final battle. This is especially true for interim maintenance. One miss, and suddenly, you are saddled with high interim maintenance.

Be Open to Negotiations and Mediation: Regardless of what everyone tells you about going for ZERO settlement. 99% of cases get settled in mediation or through negotiations. I have seen people who used to swear on the water that they would never settle their cases by paying money have settled on the first opportunity. Be wary of false gods. Have a pragmatic approach and settle the matter through negotiation and mediation, as and when possible. Protracted litigation helps only lawyers and no one else. I often say that if one can settle the matter by paying as much money to the wife as one is ready to spend on lawyers, you better pay your wife rather than the lawyer. Also, negotiations and mediation can sometimes happen, even if you have many cases.

Be Prepared: If your wife left on your own or you left her for some reason, be prepared to collect all proofs at the time of severance. Such proofs come in handy to prove either she is a deserter or you had valid grounds to stay away from her. However, this won’t help you much in the interim maintenance stage. But still, this goes a long way in reducing maintenance or denying it altogether. If you ever tried to call her back, have valid proof.

Collect Evidence: Some things which help you in reducing maintenance are a) Her Educational Qualification, b) Her Lifestyle, c) Her Present or Prior working experience, if any, d) Her Bank Accounts and Saving details, including her Form 26AS, ITR or CIBIL Scores. Certain documents can be obtained through RTI, but not all can. Though possession of certain documents is illegal and could be construed as a crime, these documents can be obtained from links/ detectives; if you got the documents through some sources, they don’t produce the same in court as it is. The production of these documents can be done in court through the CrPC 91 application, witness summons or other means.

Work on a Vibhishan in her family: No man or family is an island. And when people are in the social milieu, we all have enemies or snakes buried in our sleeves. Try to find one such Vibhishan in her family. These people can provide insights which are hidden from you. Also, such people go beyond help in pure maintenance cases and can help you settle your cases.

Build your liabilities when you can: Statutory and legal liabilities have first right on your income, even before your spouse. So, home loans or other liabilities that one has before the start of the litigation would have a bearing on deducing your net take-home income. People tend to take loans after the start of litigation, which the court sees as a means to build assets at the cost of maintaining.

If needed, Lick your wounds and continue the battle: God Forbid if you have been saddled with heavy interim maintenance. Think about the efficacy of review/ revision/ appeal with great caution. The interim maintenance order is payable every month. I have personally seen people spending many years going through useless revisions or execution petitions and bleeding every month when the case could have finished early if the girl was put to give evidence or stand in the witness box. Maximum cases settle at the stage of evidence. Early burial of cases saves not only on monthly maintenance but also on litigation costs.

Run cases faster: There is a tendency to delay the arguments and filing of replies in maintenance cases. It is stated that the delay would dishearten the petitioner and compel her to leave her claim. This is a self-defeatist argument; on one hand, one argues that the wife has sufficient means of upkeep, and then one thinks that delay would cause inconvenience to her. Both can’t be true at the same time. Moreover, maintenance is almost always granted from the filing date of an application. The delay would only mean that you would have built the arrears and would be put in many inconveniences to pay for them. Remember that defeating the claim at the final stage is easier than defeating the claim at the interim stage.

Pay genuinely for your child/ if she has no means of sustenance: I know this would not sound good, as she is the erring party. But be genuine. Most courts won’t deny the relief to a person who has no means of sustenance. Also, your children are your liabilities. Pay for their education and upkeep willingly and pay what you would have spent had the children been with you. This can also make the court lean in your favour and bring a settlement to your litigation by pressing her. It would help if you started this before the cases were filed. Also, please remember that not paying for your child’s maintenance can bar you from getting custody of the child.

I also did not follow many of the above steps when my cases were ongoing. Vengeance is blind, I must say. However, I have crystallized the above methods over time and have seen people less sad with the outcome of the above steps.

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