Doctor asked to pay Rs 60,000 per month to two daughters

New Delhi: A Punjab-based doctor has been directed by a Delhi court to pay Rs 60,000 as maintenance per month to his two daughters, who are living with his estranged wife here.

The court, however, dismissed the plea of his wife, who is also a dentist, seeking alimony from her husband on the ground that she has concealed material facts and is not entitled for any relief at this stage. Metropolitan Magistrate Vandana Jain asked the doctor to pay Rs 30,000 maintenance per month to each of his two daughters, aged six years and 11 years respectively, while dismissing his plea that he was not liable to maintain them as they refused to stay with him. "As far as the children are concerned, it is a settled proposition of law that the children are entitled to get maintenance from both the parents. The plea of the counsel for the respondent (man) that since the children have denied to remain in his custody, he is not entitled to maintain them, cannot be entertained and this is a misconception. "The respondent being the father is liable to maintain both the daughters. As far as the complainant (woman) is concerned, she is maintaining them. She is taking care of them alone as they are in her custody," the court said. The man and the woman had met each other during their college days, fell in love and got married in 2000. The woman, who along with their daughters is living in Delhi, had moved the court seeking maintenance for them from her estranged husband on the ground that he used to harass and treat her cruelly due to which she left his company. She alleged that he was earning three-four lakhs per month while he had not allowed her to continue her medical practice after marriage. She had alleged that the man was has his own dispensary and was working as a professor in a medical college in Punjab and was earning money from other movable and immovable assets. The man, however, claimed that he was earning only Rs 50,000 per month and refuted the allegation that he stopped his wife from continuing her profession after marriage.