Lucknow, Nov. 27 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has reiterated that an able-bodied husband cannot avoid his legal obligation to maintain his wife by pleading unemployment.

With this observation, the high court dismissed a criminal revision petition filed by a man challenging a family court order to pay Rs.2,500 per month as interim maintenance to his estranged wife.

The high court upheld the order of the additional principal judge, family court, Lucknow, in this regard.

The high court observed that the amount was "meagre" and found no illegality in the family court's decision to assess the husband's income on the basis of minimum wages, rejecting the husband's plea to refer the matter to mediation on a deposit of Rs.2...