IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA MA No.661 of 2009 14 19.2.2010 Shankar Jha Son of Sri Pramod Jha, Resident of Village Bath, P.S. Ghanshyampur, Subdivision- Biraul, District Darbhanga .......Plaintiff ...... Appellant VERSUS Lalita Devi Daughter of Shashi Chandra Kunwar Resident of Village Kanhai P.S. Ghanshyampur, Subdivision Biraul District Darbhanga, Wife of Shankar Jha, of Village Bath P.S. Ghanshyampur Subdivision Biraul District Darbhanga ....... Defendant .... Respondent -------- Heard learned counsel for the appellant, and learned counsel for the respondent and perused the judgment and order under appeal, particularly the discussion made in respect of income and property of the parties from paragraph 63 to 69. Since the decree of divorce has been allowed on the asking of the appellant (plaintiff) and a petition under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act was filed, the parties are not aggrieved by the order of divorce. The only grievance of the appellant is against award of permanent alimony of Rs.1,25,000/- as lump sum. The learned Family Court has noticed that the appellant is the only son of his father, who is a retired army personnel and the respondent wife had stated in evidence 2 that appellant has 10 bighas of agricultural land and also a business of general stores dealing in cement and sand etc. besides money lending business. The court also noticed that since the filing of the divorce case in the year 2000, not a single farthing was paid by the husband towards maintenance of the wife, nor anything was paid towards cost of litigation. The court has taken a very conservative stand and calculated the need of the respondent wife to be only Rs.1000/- per month and to secure uninterrupted payment of such monthly amount, it decided to award a permanent alimony of Rs.1.25 lakh in lump sum. Having considered all the facts and circumstances and also the discussion, which shows that the respondent wife has no independent source of income and her parents are also not well-off, we find no good ground to interfere with the amount of permanent alimony. The appeal is found to be without merits. It is dismissed accordingly but without costs. (Shiva Kirti Singh, J.) (Birendra Prasad Verma, J.) sk