Supreme Court sends man to jail for 3 months after he fails to pay ₹ 1.6 crore maintenance to estranged wife

The Supreme Court recently ordered a man to undergo three months civil imprisonment after he failed to pay ₹ 1.6 crore as maintenance to his estranged wife. .A Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian passed the order on March 22 after it noted that the man had not made payment of the amount despite being given one final chance to make payment during an earlier hearing on February 19."We punish the contemnor/respondent for committing contempt of this Court and sentence him to imprisonment for a period of three months in civil prison," the order said. The Court had, on February 19, given a final opportunity to the contemnor to pay arrears of maintenance, along with monthly maintenance of Rs 1.75 lakh, to his estranged wife. ."By way of last chance, we permit the respondent to make payment of the entire outstanding amount along with the monthly maintenance regularly to his wife, within a period of four weeks from today, failing which, the respondent (husband) may have to be punished and sent to civil prison," the Court had said on February 19. .But when the matter was heard on March 22, it was pointed out by the wife that that the earlier order of the top court was yet to be complied with and only part payments were made. ."Today it is reported that the respondent has not complied with the aforesaid order. Mr. Rohit Sharma, learned counsel appearing for the respondent, seeks more time. We have already given a long rope. The respondent has not utilized the chances so given," the Court noted. It, therefore, ordered him to serve three months in civil prison for contempt of court. .Senior Advocate Basava Prabhu Patil, Advocte-on-Record (AoR) Ishaan George and advocates Rukma George, George Cherian and Uttam Cherian represented the petitioner wife. Advocate Rohit Sharma, AoR Kumar Dushyant Singh and advocates Rounak Nayak and Arju Chaudhary appeared for the contemnor.