Allahabad HC cites Manusmriti, orders 25% salary as wife's maintenance

The Allahabad High Court has said that a husband's duty to support his wife, his minor children and parents who cannot support themselves is both a legal and a "pious" obligation, citing a verse from the Manusmriti (Chapter XI, Verse 10) alongside Supreme Court rulings. Justice Praveen Kumar Giri gave the order on 22 October 2026 in a criminal revision filed by a wife from Kanpur Nagar who wanted a higher maintenance award, and the ruling was reported on 29 October 2026. The court changed a family court's monthly award of Rs 19,000 and directed that 25 per cent of the husband's gross salary, with only income tax set aside, be deducted at source and paid into the wife's verified bank account.

Maintenance disputes often turn on two questions: how much is fair, and how can a wife be sure she will receive it? This order answers both practically. Instead of a fixed rupee amount that can lose value over time or go unpaid, the court tied the support to a share of the husband's salary and had it deducted at source. That means the payment moves with his pay and reaches the wife's account directly, without her having to chase it each month.

The ruling is also notable for how it frames the duty. According to the reports, the court described the obligation as both legal and pious. It reproduced a Manusmriti verse which, as the text says, places the care of aged parents, a virtuous wife and an infant child above almost every other concern. The court then grounded the same duty in modern law: Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, whose purpose courts have long described as preventing vagrancy and destitution, and the Supreme Court's Anju Garg judgment. The reports say the court held that once a marriage is legally recognised and the wife cannot support herself, the husband's liability is absolute, irrespective of historical dogmas.

For Peepals Shakti readers, the order sits where family tradition meets the law. The reference is to an old text, but the outcome is a modern, enforceable arrangement. The duty to care for dependants, often described as a family value, is also a right women can enforce in court.

The order does not create a new legal test: the verse stresses the duty, while the binding force comes from the statute and precedent. The outcome also rested partly on the husband's own consent to the 25 per cent deduction.

Short-term: The wife and her minor daughter will receive maintenance as a fixed share of the husband's salary, paid straight into her verified bank account, instead of a flat Rs 19,000 a month.

Long-term: Deduction at source tied to a percentage of salary may be cited by other wives in maintenance cases where the husband has a salaried job, since it reduces the risk of missed payments and keeps the amount in line with pay rises. The court's language on a "pious" as well as legal duty may also be quoted in later arguments, though it does not change the law.

Who is affected: Women seeking maintenance for themselves and their children, especially where the husband is a salaried employee; dependent elderly parents, whom the court named among those a man must support; family court judges and lawyers handling Section 125 cases in Uttar Pradesh.

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