Kerala HC Directs All Family Courts To Release Amounts Deposited Towards Arrears Of Maintenance At The Earliest

The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed all Family Court judges to release the amount deposited towards arrears of maintenance under the orders of the High Court or otherwise, at the earliest. 

The Single Judge Bench of Justice A. Badharudeen's observed, 

"when arrears of maintenance being deposited before the Family Courts in obedience to the order/interim order or otherwise, Family Courts are reluctant to release the amount deposited to the claimants and unwantedly insist for orders from this Court to release the amount. It appears to be a bad practice which is detrimental to the interest of the claimants. In fact, it is the duty of the Family Courts to release the amount deposited within no time to the respondents, so as to help them for their survival".

The Court thus issued aforementioned direction noting that this was the practice in almost all the Family Courts. 

The Court further directed that when amounts are deposited, being part of arrears of maintenance, the Family Court shall immediately secure the presence of the claimant/claimants, after contacting them through their lawyers or on the telephone numbers of the claimants, if available in the office, and shall release the amount directly to the parties, without effecting deposit of the same in the treasury. If such way of payment of the amount is not feasible, despite having adopted the aforementioned procedures, the amount can then be deposited in accordance with law.

"It is specifically made clear that the amount, if any, deposited towards arrears of maintenance, with rider not to release the amount, such amount alone shall not be released in view of this direction", the Court added.

The Court in the instant case was considering a revision petition filed against the order of Family Court, Tirur, Malappuram. During the hearing, while it was informed by the counsels for the petitioner that the deposit had been effected as per the orders of the Court which fact was not disputed by the respondent, the latter added that when petition was filed before the Family Court to get the amount released, the same was objected by the revision petitioner. 

The Registry was directed to forward a copy of the order to the Family Court concerned within 7 days for information and with direction to comply the same without fail. A copy of the order was also directed to be forwarded to all the District Bar Associations in the State for their information and with request to forward the same to the Bar Associations in sub centres and Mofusil centres for information.

Advocates Gouri Meempat, Deepa Narayanan, K. Sujai Sathian and Sangeetha Sreekumar appeared on behalf of the revision petitioner. The respondent in the revision petitioner was represented by Advocates K.R. Vinod and M.S. Letha. 

Case Title: Manikandan v. Raveena

Click Here To Read/Download The Order