What this book will not cover

The book will not cover maintenance under other acts like Section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA 24) or even rarer Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA) because:

1. Most of the men on whom their wife had filed cases first - report them to be under CrPC 125 or DV Act (Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act). The percentage will be close to 90-95%.

2. A few men file divorce cases on wives not realizing that she can also claim interim maintenance under HMA 24. Also, very commonly the wife may file a 498A case in retaliation, and a DV case too to claim maintenance. So in the end many men who file divorce end up dealing with maintenance case under DV Act or CrPC 125 anyway.

3. HMA 24 becomes active when either party to marriage files a case like divorce, RCR (Restitution of Conjugal Rights), and so on. Most women do not file a divorce case to claim interim maintenance, because filing CrPC 125 or DV Act case gives them a much easier option, and an abla-naari (helpless woman) image too.

4. Trying to cover maintenance under HMA 24 will invariably lead to discussion about divorce/RCR etc, which is a different topic and may tend to distract from the main focus of this book which is on denying or reducing maintenance.

Also, though many people who face DV Act or CrPC 125 cases also have other criminal cases like IPC 498A on them, in this book we don't want to cover them because it will distract from the main topic which is how to reduce maintenance, both interim and final. I am convinced that reducing maintenance is the core pillar of the strategy to fight false cases by wife, and I will explain why in more detail later. So we don't want to mix up too many things, cause indigestion, and end up making readers even more confused about the right course of action. Next chapter explains reasons behind this approach in more detail.

Often used terms and references in the book

In the book, we will be referring to bare acts of CrPC 125 and DV Act quite often and they can be referred to at the following links:

http://menrightsindia.net/bare-acts/crpc-125-bare-act

http://menrightsindia.net/bare-acts/the-protection-of-women-from-domestic-violence-act-2005-bare-act

Also, the appendices at the end of the book contain full bare acts of CrPC 125, PWDVA, PWDVA Rules, and Family Courts Act.

Often used terms in the book

Bare act: The bare wordings of a statute or law, without any added commentary or case law discussions on it

CrPC: Code of Criminal Procedure

HMA: Hindu Marriage Act

MRA: Men's Rights Activist

MRAs: Men's Rights Activists

"MRI" or "MRI site": refers to the site http://menrightsindia.net

PWDVA: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

Glossary and Reference

Basic legal terms used in the book

Adjournment: the postponement of a court proceeding or session until another date

Act: a statute enacted or passed into law by a legislature or Parliament

Applicant: person who applies to the court for a remedy or relief set out in an Application

Application: a request of the court to make an order for the remedy or relief requested

Argument: the address or presentation to the court by the parties with the aim of persuading the court to make a decision in their favour; the argument is not evidence; may be in written form contained in a brief submitted to the court; also "closing arguments" used to describe closing remarks or address to the judge before final order

Ex Parte: where a court proceeding is heard in the presence of one party only and without notice to the other party(s)

Injunction: an order of the court requiring a person to not do some act or not continue to do some act that the court considers they have no right to do

Interim application (IA): An application made to court to get an interim relief while the final disposal of the case is still pending

Interim Order: a decision of a court that is not the final outcome of the matter; commonly occurs in family law cases where an interim order is made by the court regarding issues that may ultimately be decided at a later date, i.e. at a trial

Jurisdiction: the scope of authority given to a particular court, tribunal or other decision-making body; the types of cases a court or decision-making body has the power to determine; the geographical area in which a court or decision-making body has the power to make decisions

Party: a person who is plaintiff/defendant or applicant/respondent in a civil proceeding or in a criminal context, a person who actually commits an offence or who is liable as a party to an offence by reason of aiding or abetting or conspiring or counselling the commission of an offence

Petition: a document which commences a civil proceeding other than an action or law suit; a Petition usually seeks from the court relief that is set out under a particular statute, for example a Petition for a Divorce

Precedent: A principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.

Prima Facie: a Latin term meaning "at first sight"; used to describe a fact that is presumed to be true unless disproved by contrary evidence

Service: the delivering to a person of a copy of a document that has been filed with the court; the manner of service, for example in person, and time frame within which service must occur is set out in the Rules of Court or in the particular statute governing the case

Summons: a document which requires a person to attend to the court on a specified date and time to answer or respond to a complaint filed with the court; a process in criminal proceedings to require an accused person to attend court to answer to a criminal charge

Vakalatnama: Vakalatnama is the Urdu term which means a person signs a document which gives authority to an advocate of his choice to plead and argue his case on his behalf. The advocate and his associates/juniors can also plead the case.

Warrant: a command or order of the court; there are numerous warrants in criminal proceedings such as an arrest warrant which is an order of the court to arrest an accused person and bring him or her before the court to answer to the offence with which the person has been charged; or a search warrant which is an order of the court permitting the search by peace officers of a particular premises for particular things respecting a criminal offence that are to be brought before the court

Other useful legal terms to know

Affidavit: a written statement of fact either sworn or affirmed by the person making it (called the "deponent"); a form of evidence (in contrast to verbal testimony given in court) filed and to be considered by the judge in deciding a particular matter

Amicus Curiae: a Latin term meaning "friend of the court"; commonly found in family law cases; usually an advocate who assists the court in some matters

Appellant: the person who takes an appeal of a decision of a court or other decision-making body

Common Law: the law stated in the decisions of judges from early times to the present

Civil Case: a court proceeding which involves legal issues between individuals/organizations/governments; court proceedings other than criminal matters

Costs: see Solicitor and Clients Costs or Party and party Costs;

Counsel: another term for lawyer as in "legal counsel"

Leave: the permission of the court to proceed; for example, to "seek the leave of the court" to file an appeal

Pleadings: the documents that are filed with the court by the parties to a proceeding which sets out the issues or matters to be determined by the court; the foundational documents which form the record of the case with the court

Point of Law: a question regarding a law or legal issue as opposed to a question regarding the facts involved in a legal proceeding; a term often used in determining whether an appeal can be taken of a decision. Some appeals can only be made on a point of law, and not in regard to the facts of the case as they were determined by the trial judge. However, in some cases, the difference between a point of law and a point of fact may be unclear or mixed

Registrar: an officer of the court office or "registry" who receives documents for filing with the court and who has authority to certify or confirm decisions on behalf of the court

Short date: a request of the court that a matter be heard by the court, i.e. a motion, within a time frame that is shorter than what is normally required by the rules of the court; usually short date is asked for when the matter is considered to be urgent by the requesting party

Note: Many of the terms above have been taken and modified from the webpage below from official legal website of a province in Canada. I find these legal definitions to be very concise, well-written, and similar in meaning to the usage assigned to them in Indian courts too.

http://www.manitobacourts.mb.ca/general-information/definitions-understanding-legal-words/

Other common terms used in text of judgments\
Coram: a Latin word meaning "in the presence of"; often used in appeal court judgments indicating the panel of appeal judges before whom a case was heard;

Impugned: To attack as false or questionable; cast doubt, challenge, raise questions. Commonly found in appeals where the term "impugned judgment" means the judgment of a lower court which has been appealed against in higher court.

A note on writing style in this book

A note on writing style in this book\
Writing a book requires higher standards than writing a blog post, but it is not my attempt to make this into a text book, or a literary or legal work. So I have adopted an easy-going and engaging style with the reader in this book too, which may be familiar to readers of MRI site. It is my conviction that reader can grasp things better when he is enjoying what he is reading, rather than when getting bored. So if you see in the book usage of words and phrases like "it's" rather than "it is", or "don't" rather than "do not", it is not because I am not aware of standards of good writing, it's just that I prefer a style which is conversational rather than academic.

A note on spelling or grammar errors in the judgment extracts and people's questions\
I strive to have zero mistakes in any spelling or grammatical errors in my own written points or commentary on bare acts or judgments. The spellings of words follow British English and not US English. Now, many portions of the book contain extracts of publicly reported judgments, and I have reproduced extracts of them exactly as they are reported and accessible in public databases. These sometimes contain typing errors because of the fact that the judgments are dictated by judges to typists, who type them usually under time pressure. Probably the spelling mistakes happen because the typists are required to finish it quickly rather than worrying about perfect spelling or grammar.

So if you find some spelling errors in the judgment extracts, it's simply because of above reason. Sometimes there are more egregious errors which change the meaning of a sentence to the opposite of what's intended. Examples of these can be substitution of petitioner for respondent (as a friend reported to me in his case), or he for she (in a matrimonial case), but errors of those kind are not present in any of judgment extracts in this book. At maximum, it will be spelling errors or typos.

The reason I don't want to change anything inside the judgment extracts is because there is no limit to what all things I can change: should I correct only spelling errors, or also correct grammatical errors? If I attempt to improve the grammar, what happens if my 'improved' judgment starts looking quite different from the original judgment! Usually the intention and meaning of a judgment is never in doubt, so I have decided against improving the aesthetics, in favour of adherence to original text.

Similarly, in few places, I have reproduced verbatim questions asked by community members, without correcting the spelling etc. The meaning there is quite clear though.

Outside of judgment extracts and verbatim reproduced questions, if you find any errors in the book, kindly report it via this Contact Page.

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