Wife entitled to same living as hubby: court

A Delhi court on Thursday directed an oil consultant to pay his estranged wife '2 lakhs per month. The oil consultant and the woman married around 14 years ago in Amritsar. The woman filed the case against her estranged husband in Noida but later filed a plea with the Supreme Court to transfer the case to a Delhi court. Her plea was granted. “It is a settled law that a wife is entitled to the same level of living as that of the husband,” metropolitan magistrate Kiran Gupta said while directing the man, who renders consultation to mostly foreign oil exploration companies, to give '2 lakh in maintenance to his wife every month. “On the basis of evidence on record, and the fact that the respondent is a consultant who renders consultation to oil companies which are mostly foreign-based and he receives payment in foreign currency, his income can be approximately asses-sed between '9 lakh and '10 lakh per month,” the magistrate said. The court said it was constrained to formulate an opinion pertaining to his likely income from evidence on record as he has deliberately not disclosed his income. The order came on the woman’s plea seeking monthly maintenance of '3 lakh.

*** Prez promises transparency in governance Age Correspondent New Delhi, Feb. 21

The government pledged Thursday to usher in reforms for greater transparency, probity and accountability in governance and to enact new laws to tackle bribery by domestic and foreign public officials. In his maiden address to a joint sitting on the first day of the Budget Session, amid DMK and AIADMK slogan-shouting against Sri Lanka and a Left boycott, President Pranab Mukherjee said the economic slowdown was of concern, but also outlined steps to tackle it.