Delhi High Court orders Omar Abdullah to pay Rs 1.5 lakh monthly maintenance to his estranged wife

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New Delhi, August 31

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to pay Rs 1.5 lakh a month as maintenance to his estranged wife Payal Abdullah.

Justice Subramonium Prasad also ordered Abdullah to pay Rs 60,000 a month each for his two sons’ education.

“…this Court directs the Respondent to pay a sum of Rs.60000/- per month per son to the Petitioner…for the purpose of their education. The period of compensation shall commence from the date when the children were enrolled in the law college, and shall subsist till their graduation from the law college,” the HC ordered.

The maintenance for Payal Abdullah shall be payable from the date she filed the maintenance application, the HC said.

“In the instant case, a bare perusal of the record indicates that the Respondent is a man of means, and has access to financial privilege that evades the common man. While it is understandable that being a politician, revealing all information pertaining to financial assets might be dangerous,however, there is no iota of doubt that the Respondent does have the resources to provide for his wife and children,” Justice Prasad said.

The order came on Payal Abdullah’s pleachallenging an April 26, 2018 order of the trial court which had granted an interim maintenance of Rs 75,000 a month to Payal Abdullah and Rs 25,000 a month for their son till he turned 18.

She had challenged the trial court’s maintenance order on the ground that it was too low and that their sons were not old enough to take care of their expenses and have to depend on their parents to pursue their education and other expenses.

Maintaining that he never shirked from the responsibility of his sons, Omar Abdullah contended that he has been paying for the maintenance of his sons.

A Delhi court had in 2016 dismissed Omar Abdullah’s plea for divorce holding that he failed to prove “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage” and his claims of “cruelty or desertion”. Abdullah has challenged the trial court’sorder before the Delhi High Court. (With Agency Inputs)