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Mumbai: Supreme Court this week stayed a Bombay high court order that enhanced a Mumbai family court’s monthly interim maintenance to a wife by seven times. HC had raised the amount from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3.5 lakh for a woman in Pune and observed the estranged husband approached court with “unclean hands and lack of credibility” in a matrimonial dispute, reports Swati Deshpande.A bench of Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice K Vinod Chandran Monday directed the husband to pay, in four weeks, up-to-date arrears as per the family court’s interim order dated Feb 24, 2023, in a divorce petition filed in 2015.The husband challenged HC’s Nov 10 order before apex court, contending the HC erred in enhancing the maintenance.SC heard senior counsel Madhavi Divan for the husband and Kamini Jaiswal for the wife and posted the matter for Jan 20. It said the wife may file her reply by then, and until the next date, HC’s direction to pay the enhanced maintenance shall remain stayed, subject to payment of arrears and continuous payment of the monthly maintenance awarded by the family court.
