A city court held last week that an HIV-positive man could not make his disease an excuse to deny his estranged wife and children financial maintenance.

Directing the man to pay alimony to his wife and his school-going children, Metropolitan Magistrate Twinkle Wadhwa said: “Though the court is sensitive to the difficulty faced by the man, who is an HIV patient... but when the question of maintenance is to be decided, it is to be decided from the point of an established legal framework.”

The judge also observed that it was the court’s duty to ensure the woman and children were not pushed to poverty on the sole ground of the ailment.

She said: “A man cannot be exculpated of his legal, social and moral liability to pay maintenance to his wife and children... only because he is an HIV patient.”

The court said all it could do for such ailing people was to consider their expenses on treatment while deciding on the quantum of alimony.

Referring to a Delhi High Court judgment, the magistrate noted that the onus was absolutely on a person to prove to the court that for reasons beyond his control he was unable to earn enough to provide for his estranged wife and children.

Otherwise, he could not be exonerated of his duty to pay, the court held.

In this case, the woman filed the petition, seeking alimony for herself and the two children. Married in November 1990, the couple soon developed problems, allegedly because the husband and his family put pressure on her for more dowry.

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