Telangana High Court
Nooty Vasishta Venkateshwarlu vs Smt. N. Sindhu Sharma on 7 June, 2024
THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SUJOY PAUL
CIVIL REVISION PETITION No.1333 of 2024
ORDER:
Heard Smt. Manjiri S. Ganu, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri M. Kalyana Rama Krishna, learned counsel for the respondents.
2. With the consent, finally heard.
3. This petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution takes exception to the order dated 02.04.2024 whereby the Court below opined that it is not inclined to accept the contention of respondent-petitioner regarding defray of expenses for the items purchased for the children and set-off the amount credited by him to the account of the petitioner in the year 2016 when they were living together, towards arrears of maintenance which was awarded to meet the day to day requirements and necessities of petitioner and children. In Paragraph No.19 of the impugned order, the Court below opined that the respondent-petitioner is not entitled to get set-off and defray the amount, except the amount of school fee paid by him for the children. 2
4. The necessary facts for adjudication of this matter are that the petitioner-husband filed O.P.No.536 of 2022 for dissolution of marriage. In the said case, the respondent-wife filed I.A.No.347 of 2022 which came to be decided on 22.09.2022. The Family Court passed a detailed order, the relevant portion of which reads as under:
"16. In the result, this petition is partly allowed by granting interim maintenance to the petitioner @ 60,000/- per month for the maintenance of herself and her two children, from the date of filing of this petition to till the disposal of the main case. She is also entitled for legal expenses and other charges @ 1,00,000/- to contest the main case proceedings filed by the respondent/husband. The respondent is directed to pay the maintenance amount before 5th of every succeeding month into the bank account of the petitioner to be provided by her. He is directed to pay off the arrears amount along with legal expenses awarded within three months from the date of this order. He is further directed to continue with payment of school fees and other educational expenditure of their two children, till the conclusion of proceedings in the main case".
(Emphasis Supplied)
5. Thus, it is clear that the Court directed the husband to pay following amounts: (i) interim maintenance of Rs.60,000/- per month, (ii) legal and other expenses to the tune of Rs.1,00,000/- and (iii) continue to pay school fees and other expenditure for children.
6. Aggrieved, C.R.P.No.2170 of 2022 was filed before this Court by the petitioner-husband. This Court disposed of the 3 said C.R.P on 21.10.2022. The relevant portion reads as under:
"4. In view of the aforementioned discussion and with the consent of both parties, the petitioner/husband is directed to pay a sum of Rs.40,000/- per month to the respondent/wife towards maintenance from the date of filing of the petition till this month i.e., 31.10.2022 and thereafter, to pay a sum of Rs.45,000/- per month to the respondent/wife towards maintenance from 01.11.2022 till disposal of O.P.No.536/2022 before the Court below. The petitioner/husband is directed to clear the arrears of maintenance in five equal monthly installments commencing from 01.11.2022.
The trial Court is directed to dispose of O.P.No.536/2022 within six (6) months from the date of receipt of copy of this Order.
With these observations, the Civil Revision Petition is disposed of. In view of the facts and circumstances of the case, there shall be no order as to costs.
Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed."
7. The respondent-wife filed I.A.No.940 of 2023 under Section 151 of CPC claiming arrears of maintenance to the tune of Rs.7,32,359.59/-. The parties were heard on this I.A. by the Court below and the impugned order dated 02.04.2024 is passed.
8. Learned counsel for the petitioner-husband submits that the Court below has erred in directing the husband to pay entire arrears of interim maintenance to the respondent- wife, by deducting only the school fee of the children paid by 4 him. Learned counsel further submits that the Court below has committed an error in passing the said order. This Court passed the order in C.R.P.No.2170 of 2022 dated 21.10.2022 which impliedly means that the husband is only required to pay a sum of Rs.40,000/- per month only, after deducting the school fees and other expenses.
9. Learned counsel for the other side submits that the learned counsel for the petitioner is trying to inject something which has not been argued and decided in C.R.P.No.2170 of 2022. In the said case, by order dated 21.10.2022, this Court only reduced the amount of maintenance from Rs.60,000/- to Rs.40,000/- retrospectively and Rs.45,000/- per month w.e.f. 01.11.2022. This Court had no occasion to consider the aspect of deduction of payment in relation to school fees and other educational expenditure. The said school fees and education expenditure is to be paid in addition to the maintenance allowance and it cannot be set- off against the amount of Rs.3,25,000/- already deposited by the petitioner. The said amount was paid in the year 2016 i.e. much before the passing of the order dated 22.09.2022.
10. No other point is pressed.
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11. I have heard the parties on this aspect. The order dated 22.09.2022 can be treated to be modified only to the extent this Court issued directions in relation to maintenance allowance in Paragraph No.4 of the order passed in C.R.P.No.2170 of 2022 which is reproduced hereinabove. Apart from this, the previous order passed by Court below on 22.09.2022 remained intact. In the light of the said order, it cannot be said that the petitioner was entitled to get set-off of amount of Rs.3,25,000/- which was deposited in the year 2016 much before the passing of order dated 22.09.2022. Apart from this, the present petitioner has not filed any application to that effect before the Court below for adjustment of the said amount. The Court below was justified in passing the order in the light of Paragraph No.16 of its previous order dated 22.09.2022.
12. Learned counsel for the other side apprised this Court that he has already filed a review petition before the Court below which has been returned, in which, he prayed that the 'school fees' amount cannot be deducted. The present respondent may be given liberty to file appropriate proceedings in relation to the said review. 6
13. This Court is unable to persuade itself with the line of argument of learned counsel for the petitioner that amount paid by husband in the year 2016 to the wife to the tune of Rs.3,25,000/- can be adjusted or set-off against maintenance allowance. This argument is devoid of substance because petitioner failed to raise this argument when he filed C.R.P.No.2170 of 2022. In a petition filed in the year 2022, he could have asked for set-off paid in 2016 before this Court. However, this Court has only interfered in relation to maintenance allowance and did not touch the other directions relating to payment of 'school fee' and 'other expenditure' to the children. In absence thereof, there was no occasion for the Court below to deviate from its previous direction dated 22.09.2022 while passing the impugned order 02.04.2024. The Court below has taken a plausible view in the impugned order.
14. In view of foregoing discussion, I find no illegality which warrants interference in the impugned order dated 02.04.2024. The impugned order is affirmed with the observation that it will not come in the way of the present respondent in pursuing his remedy arising out of the review 7 which is returned by the Court below relating to the adjustment of 'school fee'.
15. With the aforesaid observation, the Civil Revision Petition is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs.
As a sequel, miscellaneous petitions, pending if any, stand closed.
_______________________ JUSTICE SUJOY PAUL Date: 07.06.2024 ns/myk/lpd