IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA MA No.670 of 2008 Santosh Kumar Thakur s/o Sri Ramashish Thakur resident of Village Hanuman Nagar P.S. Singhwara Dist. Darbhanga Present address Mohalla Kanhauli Bishnudutt P.S. Mithanpura Dist. Muzaffarpur Appellant Versus Shabnam Kumari wife of Santosh Kumar Thakur D/o Chandra Shekhar Thakur resident of Mohalla Azad Colony Road No. 3, Maripur P.S. Kazi Mohammadpur Dist. Muzaffarpur Respondent ----------- 11/ 01.10.2010 Heard learned counsel for the appellant. In spite of notice, no body has appeared on behalf of the respondent. By the judgment and order dated 17th September, 2008 passed in Matrimonial Case No. 89 of 2007 the learned Principal Judge, Family Court, Muzaffarpur has allowed applicant’s prayer for grant of decree of divorce against his wife- opposite party. By the same judgment and order, after considering prayer of the respondent to take care of education and to bring up her minor daughter and for her marriage, a permanent alimony has been allowed by way of payment of Rs 5000/- per month. This appeal is directed against that part of the judgment and order whereby permanent alimony as aforesaid has been allowed in favour of the respondent. It is a fact that the applicant’s petition under section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act failed and ultimately the applicant filed the present case for divorce on the ground of long desertion. The marriage was held in the month of March, 2000 and in the same year a daughter was born but allegedly as per applicant, case was filed in 2007. The respondent did not agree to live with him and is living in her father’s house since last five years. Defence of the respondent was that she is 2 unable to live with her husband because of his cruel behavior. However, besides making such allegation that she is subjected to cruelty she did not come out with any concrete incidents of cruelty and hence that defence was not accepted and decree of divorce has been allowed in favour of the appellant. On the issue of alimony, the learned family court had taken into consideration the entire facts and circumstances The respondent had stated that she does not do anything and she has got no independent source of income and she has to pay for her daughter living in hostel for her education at Andhra Pradesh. She also stated that her husband has business of export and import for which he lives at Delhi. She, however, admitted that she can not tell his exact income. Considering all the facts and circumstances, the court below granted permanent alimony as noticed above. Before us, it has been submitted that since the respondent did not agree to live with the appellant, she was not entitled for any alimony. It was further submitted that amount of alimony is excessive, particularly when the income of the appellant has not been proved by the respondent. The facts clearly show that soon after the marriage after birth of a female child the respondent, although doing no work had to take shelter in her father’s house. She has no means of income and has to maintain a female child and to take care of her education. On the other hand, the submission of the respondent that her husband has business of export and import was not challenged in cross-examination. The appellant is maintaining his house hold at 3 Delhi. According to the respondent’s case her father also contributed Rs 72,000/- to enable the appellant to purchase a flat at Delhi. In such circumstances, in our view, grant of permanent alimony to take care of respondent and her minor daughter is justified. However, since the respondent has chosen not to appear in spite of notice, we have no material to controvert the submission on behalf of the appellant that he is finding difficulty in paying Rs 5000/- per month. In that view of the matter, quantum of permanent alimony is reduced to Rs 4,000/- per month. Any further modification in this amount would amount to injustice against the respondent and her daughter. With this modification in the judgment and order, this appeal is finally disposed of. (Shiva Kirti Singh, J) (Hemant Kumar Srivastava, J) shahid