India, Nov. 13 -- A lavish home featured in an architectural magazine, a throbbing birthday party with free-flowing alcohol, trekking, globetrotting and sporting a luxury brand t-shirt-all belied a Pune man's claim of penury, after which the Bombay High Court enhanced the interim monthly maintenance awarded to his estranged wife by a family court from Rs.50,000 to Rs.3.5 lakh.

A division bench of justices B P Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan observed that the man, from a wealthy business family, had not come to the court with clean hands. The judges also felt that his pleadings were "laced with a deep sense of entitlement". The court ordered him to deposit Rs.42 lakh-one year's worth of the enhanced maintenance-into the woman's bank...