Legal disclaimer
In plain English, I state that I am not a lawyer, and this book is written for purpose of education, entertainment, and maybe myriad other reasons the readers may want to use this book for. But the contents and advice given in the book should not be taken as professional or legal advice, and I will not be held responsible for any consequences whether good or bad arising out of reader following the material in this book.

Purpose and perspective of this book

The book is an attempt to convey a working understanding of maintenance laws to men who are facing such cases from wives. Not knowing the law is not an excuse for avoiding liability under it, so one might as well spend some time and effort to educate oneself about the maintenance laws.

There would be ample number of legal books available in market to explain about CrPC 125, DV Act. These books usually are not read by husbands for the following reasons:

1. Their whole approach and manner of writing is very legal, their intended audience being law students or advocates. So general public and laymen are unable to make much use of these books, and many are in fact intimidated to go through them.

2. These laws are made for women, so most books which are available are actually written from perspective of how to help and guide women to use these laws. Good luck finding something useful for men in these books.

3. There is a category of books that are written for husbands which usually start with the title: "Cruelty to Husbands". The title itself conveys the primary audience is for men desiring to apply for divorce on wife based on grounds of cruelty. Now these books may contain something about maintenance also, but that message is buried deep somewhere inside the book, and it is not the main topic of these books anyway.

Lastly, one of the subtle yet important points I want to make is to warn against putting blind trust in learning from past judgments and past precedents, which should extend to judgments covered in this book too! Laws of maintenance maybe relatively simple, but the judgments being given under these laws will continue to evolve as more and more women file fresh maintenance cases, with different circumstances in each case. In maintenance judgments of last few years, courts are already wising up to the fact that many maintenance applications have no real basis in terms of woman having being driven out because of husband's cruelty. They are just a convenient tool getting exploited by many unscrupulous women who want to do a wrong, and yet get benefit of their own wrong. The divorce industry is a willing participant, since it will be difficult for many advocates to refuse the temptation of fees from 'easy' matrimonial litigation, relative to other branches of law which require more effort to earn the same amount. So the task of creating new precedents under maintenance laws, will fall on the shoulders of husbands themselves who are facing such cases. I sincerely hope that some men will be able to create such precedents after getting information from this book.

This book is written with perspective of helping men, and not expound on or spend time describing the benefits of maintenance laws to women. This book takes the approach that reducing maintenance, and especially at the interim stage itself, is the smartest and best strategy for men whenever any marital litigation starts. All other cases like 498A, 406, divorce etc can wait, and wait they will anyway, in deference to fighting the maintenance cases with full vigour. I will explain more about this later in the book.

The scope of the book is as to cover topics on basic strategy to fight cases, history and logic behind maintenance, the bare acts of maintenance under CrPC 125 and DV Act along with implications, useful judgments and precedents to reduce or avoid maintenance to wife, along with other useful chapters on court procedures, court processes and what to expect, how to engage and manage lawyers, how to draft objections, collect evidence, making overall strategy, executing the game plan, and tactics etc.

Intended audience

Most of the people who approach men's rights activists are facing false accusations both in civil/family court cases, and in criminal cases like IPC 498A, 406 etc., and the book is especially meant for them. It is very much possible that a few people who may purchase this book may not belong to above category, for example they could be advocates, or maybe men who haven't really faced many false allegations but want to read this book as a way to reduce and avoid maintenance. All the techniques and knowledge shared in this book are well within the legal boundaries, so we don't want to judge anyone thinking that someone will use the knowledge in this book to harass his wife. It is very similar to the fact that one can use knowledge of income tax laws to reduce tax liability, but those who don't care to read income tax laws may be unaware and might be paying higher taxes quite unnecessarily. Ultimately, what's within the legal boundaries is fair game. Also, going by experience of men who have faced cases by wives, their wives are using the law to it's full extent possible by filing cases one after another, so it is quite fair that husband should also use the law to his own advantage now that the marriage and relationship itself is under severe threat and seems beyond repair.

Note: the book is written from perspective of men who face false cases of maintenance and domestic violence allegations under CrPC 125 and DV Act. This book may not seem to be written in a neutral style trying to balance possibility of some genuine domestic violence cases versus the false cases. The reasons for that missing neutrality are very clear: a 93% acquittal rate in IPC 498A cases, another legislation created in 1983 with intention to curb violence against women and save their lives. Criminal cases like IPC 498A, 406 along with quasi-civil like DV Act are used a potent weapons within the divorce industry and the weapons are always fired in one direction - against husbands! So unless the government publishes a white paper on use and misuse of the various women protection laws, we proceed with the underlying assumption that these laws are being severely misused and abused. The intended audience and topic of this book is very clear, and it's not about protection of women.

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.

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