The Bombay High Court has directed Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale to clear maintenance arrears to his estranged wife Pratima aka Rani Hemant Nagrale.
A division bench of Justices A A Sayed and S G Dige passed the order on November 15 while hearing an application filed by Pratima Nagrale seeking enhancement of maintenance as well as accommodation in a good locality either in Nagpur or Pune.
Pratima's advocate P V Nelson Rajan had informed court the amount of maintenance had not been paid by Hemant Nagrale for the past four months, and he further said it was not the first time Nagrale was late in paying arrears.
"It is expected of the respondent husband to clear the arrears of maintenance by the next date," the court said and posted matter for further hearing on December 6.
The bench also directed Nagrale to file his affidavit to the application.
A family court had, in 2011, dissolved the marriage between Nagrale and Pratima and had directed the IPS officer to pay Rs 20,000 each month as maintenance.
Pratima had later approached HC challenging the family court order. While HC stayed the dissolution of marriage, no stay was granted on the maintenance issue.
In 2019, Pratima filed an application in HC seeking enhancement of the maintenance amount to Rs 1,50,000 per month owing to inflation and increase in cost of living.
"The respondent husband is a senior IPS officer and, hence, his salary too must have increased from time to time. Apart from salary from his service, the respondent husband is also getting income from various other sources like shares and rents from immovable properties," her application said.
Pratima, in the application, had also sought a direction to Nagrale to produce before the court his salary slip of the past three years, details of his immovable properties and his Income Tax returns documents.
