I suggest the following overall approach to handle cases filed by wife. This has been seen to be effective and many men were able to get mutual consent divorce with zero financial settlement to wife. Usually many of such people also faced IPC 498A and arrest possibilities in the beginning, which might have something to do with their resolve to fight cases right from the start. But we don't have the luxury of waiting for criminal cases to be filed before we take a firm stand against criminal behaviour of wife/in-laws in filing false cases.

1. Take a stand that you will fight the false allegations vigorously and will not be misled into accepting any guilt during CAW cell, counselling, mediation kind of proceedings.
2. Fight interim maintenance case wholeheartedly, and at that time keep any thought or possibilities of wife coming back as something the wife has to initiate and not you. That's because she was the one who left and initiated various proceedings, so any move towards rapprochement has to be initiated by her.
3. Once interim maintenance is reduced or even denied to wife, focus on other techniques of fighting like TEP, RTI etc as applicable and it varies from case to case basis. Discussing about them is not the topic of this book anyway.
4. In case for whatever reasons a higher interim maintenance is awarded, check the options possible for its downward revision, or of getting it reduced in the final order after evidence and cross-exam of both parties.

With above broad approach in mind, we will proceed to dive into the laws of maintenance like CrPC 125 and under DV Act in remaining part of the book. Following are the broad areas which will be covered:

1. Understand what is maintenance, the need for it, and the history behind it.
2. Develop a cool, calculated, unemotional approach to win the game, rather than betting on emotional responses like: "I will not pay a penny, and let's see what happens".
3. Understand why reducing interim maintenance and final maintenance are the most important things to do in overall fight. Why they are even more important than fighting IPC 498A/406, divorce/RCR etc?
4. Explore the bare act of CrPC 125 and understand its main points and their implications.
5. Explore the bare act of PWDVA (DV Act) and understand its main points and their implications.
6. Learn how to write your objections and deny DV allegations? Know which kind of evidences are helpful refute domestic violence allegations.
7. Understand the concepts and implications of shared household and residence order under DV Act. Should you sell your house to protect it from falling into wife's hands? Should you transfer the house to your mother's name?
8. What is a protection order? Understand all the sections under which wife can take your money under DV Act: monetary relief, compensation, maintenance. Learn the techniques on how to thwart these or minimize the damage.
9. Understand the process of summons and other court procedures in CrPC 125 and DV Act cases. Is it a good idea to delay taking summons?
10. Ways to find and manage a lawyer, negotiate lawyer's fees, communication etc. Filing vakalatnama, appearing in court.
11. Find out what evidence to collect, and which evidence is most important to deny or reduce maintenance to wife. How to use CrPC 91 to get wife's employment records or bank statement etc. How to reduce own income in hand? Getting parents to file CrPC 125 on husband to reduce in-hand income.
12. Some common myths to avoid in fighting maintenance cases - like leaving one's job or filing RCR.
13. What happens if you don't pay maintenance? How much jail time can be ordered? Warning: Not a recommended 'strategy'.
14. What needs to be done if arrears of maintenance have accumulated? Can you file appeal to reduce maintenance if arrears are pending?
15. Go through important judgments/precedents about maintenance ordered under CrPC 125 and DV Act. Some judgments of HMA 24 are also covered to explain about maintenance principles, though discussion of HMA 24 is not in scope of this book.
16. The judgments on maintenance are divided into sections based on whether one's wife is working, qualified but left job, qualified but never worked etc. An easy approach is given on selecting the appropriate judgment closest to the facts of your own case.
17. Final thoughts and feedback.

Finally, the appendices contain full bare acts of CrPC 125, PWDVA, PWDVA Rules, and Family Courts Act for easy reference. You can carry this book on your Android or iOS mobile and refer to them anywhere!

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