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A maintenance petition filed by your spouse under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, or an application under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, usually arrives with a number attached to it. That number is an opening demand, not a verdict. Alimony calculation in India is a structured exercise: courts look at net disposable income, the standard of living during the marriage, the claimant's own earning capacity and the needs of any children, and then decide what is just. Where you run a business or your money sits inside a company, the harder question is what counts as your income at all.
Interim maintenance is money paid while the case is still running. It keeps the dependent spouse and children afloat and funds the litigation, and it is usually payable from the date of the application. Under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, either spouse can apply for maintenance pendente lite and for the expenses of the proceedings, provided the applicant has no independent income sufficient for their support. The section says the application should be decided, as far as possible, within sixty days of notice being served. That deadline is missed often, so interim orders sometimes arrive a year or more after filing.
For couples married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, the equivalent provision is Section 36. For claims before a Magistrate, Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure with effect from 1 July 2024, covers wives, children and parents unable to maintain themselves. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 allows monetary relief under Section 20, and interim or ex parte orders under Section 23.
Permanent alimony is decided at the end of the case. Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act lets the court, at the time of passing a decree or at any time afterwards, order a gross sum or a monthly payment for a term not exceeding the life of the applicant. Sub-section (2) gives the court express power to vary, modify or rescind that order later. An order for permanent alimony is appealable under Section 28.
No statute supplies a formula. Section 23(2) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, which governs a Hindu wife's claim outside matrimonial proceedings, lists the considerations that Indian courts broadly apply everywhere:
the position and status of the parties, meaning the standard of living the claimant was used to;
the reasonable wants of the claimant;
whether the claimant is justified in living separately;
the value of the claimant's own property and income;
the number of persons entitled to maintenance from the same person.
On top of that, courts examine the paying spouse's net disposable income after tax, statutory deductions and genuine liabilities such as home loan EMIs, insurance premia and dependent parents. In Rajnesh v. Neha, (2021) 2 SCC 324, the Supreme Court of India laid down detailed guidelines and made an Affidavit of Disclosure of Assets and Liabilities mandatory in every maintenance proceeding, civil or criminal. In Kalyan Dey Chowdhury v. Rita Dey Chowdhury Nandy, (2017) 14 SCC 200, the Court considered 25 per cent of the husband's net salary to be a just benchmark, which is why that figure surfaces so often in settlement talks.
Two practical points follow. A wife is not disqualified merely because she is educated or capable of working; the question is whether she actually has sufficient independent income. Children are assessed separately, with school fees, medical costs and the child's accustomed standard of living feeding into the figure. A payer with two dependants cannot be treated the same as one with none.
This is where most disputes actually live. A salaried spouse has a Form 16 and payslips. A business owner or director has a salary, director's remuneration, dividends, loans, rental income, and a set of accounts that can make a comfortable life look modest. Courts are alive to this.
The first tool is the disclosure affidavit from Rajnesh v. Neha, which requires a sworn statement of assets, liabilities, income from every source and monthly expenditure, supported by documents. If the affidavit is vague, the court can summon records and may draw an adverse inference where a party withholds documents in their control. Delay and evasiveness on disclosure tend to cost the payer more than candour would have.
None of this means turnover becomes income. Genuine business expenses, statutory dues and working capital are legitimate deductions. What the court tests is whether the income you declare personally is consistent with how you actually live.
Take a Pune couple. The husband is a 50 per cent shareholder and director of an auto-components company. His return shows salary of ₹18,00,000, director's remuneration of ₹6,00,000 and rental income of ₹2,40,000. After tax, roughly ₹22,00,000 reaches him, about ₹1,83,000 a month. The wife resigned from a ₹9,00,000 job in 2021 when the family relocated and now earns about ₹15,000 a month from freelance work. Their child, aged seven, has school fees of ₹1,20,000 a year.
She files under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 144 of the Sanhita, seeking ₹1,00,000 a month as interim maintenance. His affidavit discloses a home loan EMI of ₹42,000 and dependent parents. The court assesses his net disposable income at about ₹1,50,000 a month and finds her freelance earnings insufficient. It orders ₹45,000 a month for her, ₹15,000 a month for the child and ₹75,000 towards her litigation expenses, payable from the date of the application. Final alimony under Section 25 is left to the decree, where the company's financials will be tested again.
Yes. Section 25(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act allows the court to vary, modify or rescind a maintenance order, and a Magistrate's order under Section 144 of the Sanhita can be altered if the circumstances of either party change. Movement happens both ways: an increase where the payer's income rises or the recipient's needs grow, and a reduction where the payer loses a job, retires, or the recipient begins earning well. A recipient's remarriage is treated as a change that generally ends the monthly allowance under the Hindu Marriage Act.
The application must show a real change in circumstances, not a re-argument of the original case. Delay works against the applicant. A payer who simply stops paying because the amount feels too high ends up in enforcement proceedings rather than in a reduction application, and that sequence rarely helps.
Section 28A of the Hindu Marriage Act provides that decrees and orders passed under the Act are enforced in the same manner as decrees and orders of the court in the exercise of its original civil jurisdiction. In practice that means execution proceedings, attachment of salary or bank accounts, and attachment of property where the arrears persist.
Orders under Section 144 of the Sanhita are enforced by the Magistrate directly. Where a monthly allowance remains unpaid, the Magistrate can issue a warrant to levy the amount and, if recovery fails, sentence the defaulter to imprisonment for the default. Because this runs through criminal process rather than civil execution, it moves faster, and courts treat wilful non-payment seriously. If you genuinely cannot pay, the remedy is an application to vary the order, filed before the arrears pile up.
Whether you are claiming or defending, the file you build in the first month decides how the next two years go. Keep originals and certified copies of the following.
Income tax returns and computation of income for the last three assessment years, for both spouses.
Form 16, salary slips and twelve months of bank statements for every account, including joint accounts.
A completed affidavit of disclosure of assets and liabilities, consistent with the formats in Rajnesh v. Neha.
Company financial statements, MCA annual filings and the board resolution or minutes fixing director's remuneration, where a spouse runs a business.
Child's school fee receipts, medical bills, tuition invoices and the rent agreement for the family home.
Loan sanction letters, EMI statements, insurance premia and credit card statements for the last twelve months.
Copies of the maintenance application, the order sheet and every order passed, kept in one indexed file.
The most expensive error is under-disclosing and hoping the court will not look. Once the other side produces a bank statement or an MCA filing that contradicts your affidavit, your credibility on every other number collapses. The second is treating business turnover as income in your own calculation and then arguing against a figure you created.
Claimants make their own mistakes. Many file without any evidence of the respondent's income and rely on oral assertions, which leaves the court with little to work with. Others file parallel proceedings in three forums without disclosing the others, which invites adjournments rather than a faster order. Keep one consolidated set of facts and produce it consistently.
If you have received a maintenance notice or an application under Section 24, do not respond with an informal letter or a WhatsApp negotiation. File a properly sworn affidavit of disclosure with supporting documents within the time the court allows, and apply immediately for any relief you need on expenses. The first affidavit you file becomes the baseline the court measures every later claim against.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified professional for your specific facts.
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