HIV-positive no excuse for escaping liability: HC

A city court has said that a man cannot escape from the liability to maintain his estranged wife and minor children on the ground that he was HIV-positive, reports HT Correspondent.

A city court has said that a man cannot escape from the liability to maintain his estranged wife and minor children on the ground that he was HIV-positive.

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The court said the question of paying maintenance to (estranged) wife and children would be decided from the legal framework, which does not recognise the ailment (being HIV-positive) as the ground to exclude his liability.

“He (husband) cannot be exculpated in law of his legal, social and moral liability to pay maintenance to his wife and children if he is otherwise liable to pay maintenance to them only because he is HIV positive,” Metropolitan Magistrate Twinkle Wadhwa said.

The court, however, expressed its sympathy for the man who had contended that since he was HIV-positive, he was not capable of earning anything and hence was not liable to pay maintenance.

The amount of maintenance, in such circumstances, would be decided keeping in view the facts regarding expenses incurred during the treatment, it added

The court, in its order, directed him to pay a total of Rs 1,200 to his two schoolgoing children.

It also noted the man had not filed any document in the court to show that he was completely bed-ridden and unable to earn.

The court, however, denied the wife any maintenance from the man after he claimed that she earned Rs 15,000 per month by working at a parlour here, saying she was able-bodied and capable of earning for herself.