A single judge of High Court of Madras held that maintenance allowance granted to wife cannot be considered as debt as she is not a creditor.
From Para 9 (cites Bhagwant Narnawre Vs Radhika Narnawre and Ashokbhai Devsingbhai Chauhan Vs Taraben Ashokbhai Chauhan),
P Amutha Vs Gunsekaran on 23 Dec 20229. Further , some issue has been considered by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad in ‘Ashokbhai Devsingbhai Chauhan /vs/ Taraben Ashokbhai Chauhan’. In that case, the Principal Family Court, Ahamedabad directed the Bank of Baroda, Science City Branch, to deduct Rs.30,000/- per month from the pension account of the husband and credit to the account of the wife towards the maintenance amount in arrears. After considering the judgments, viz., (1) Om Prakash /vs/ Javitri Devi (Manu/PH/2052/2017 : 2018(1) DMC 462), (2) Vasanthi Devi /vs/ Vijaya Bank, Ashok Nagar Branch, Mangalore, (Manu/KE/0484/1997 : 1997(2) KarLJ 351, (3) Union of India /vs/ Wing Commander R.R.Hingorani (Retd.) (MANU/SC/0572/1987 : 1987 1 SCC 551) and also considering the above said Bombay High Court judgment, finally, held Section 11 of Pension Act 1871 cannot be attracted and as a wife cannot be treated as creditor as provided under the Pension Act and upheld the order of attachment of pension passed by the Family Court for collection of pension amount.
Citations:
Other Sources:
Index of Maintenance Judgments under Section 125 CrPC here.