Wife Has Right to Know Husband's Salary Details: MP High Court

Jabalpur: A woman had the right to know the remuneration of her husband, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has observed.

A High Court bench of Justices SK Seth and Nandita Dubey made the observation while hearing the petition of Sunita Jain who had sought a higher maintenance amount from her estranged husband claiming that he was a senior officer with state-run BSNL.

Counsel for the petitioner, KC Ghildiyal, said Sunita Jain had pleaded that her estranged husband, Pawan Kumar Jain, was a senior officer of the BSNL and was drawing a high salary while she was being given a monthly maintenance of just Rs 7,000 per month.

After a trial court rejected Sunita's plea that her husband produce his pay slip, she had filed a Right to Information plea to get his salary details.

The issue reached the Central Information Commission, which, in an order dated July 27, 2007, asked the Central Public Information Officer of BSNL to furnish the details of Pawan Kumar Jain's monthly remuneration, Ghildiyal said.

The husband, however, challenged the CIC order before a single bench of the MP high court which set aside the CIC order in March 2015.

Ghildiyal said that Sunita Jain then moved the double bench of the high court which observed that a wife was entitled to know the remuneration of her husband.

The HC bench of Justices SK Seth and Nandita Dubey stated that the wife couldn't be denied this information by considering her a third party.

While setting aside the single bench order, the double bench, in an order on May 15, allowed the writ appeal and upheld the CIC order.