In short. If a Delhi family court has ordered you to pay maintenance you cannot afford, or has refused or fixed too little maintenance for you, your children or your parents under Section 144 of the BNSS (old Section 125 CrPC), the remedy is a revision petition in the Delhi High Court, not an appeal. It should be filed within 90 days of the order. Most revisions take six months to two years; interim directions on arrears come sooner. This week, get the certified copy and both sides' income affidavits.
Is this your situation?
- A family court in Delhi has ordered you to pay monthly maintenance to your wife or child that is more than you earn, or ignores your loans and other dependants.
- You are a wife, a child or an elderly parent and the family court refused maintenance or fixed an amount that does not cover basic needs.
- The court relied on your spouse's word about income and never looked at bank statements, ITRs or the assets and liabilities affidavits.
- The order makes maintenance payable from the date of the application, and the arrears now run into lakhs.
- A recovery warrant has been issued or you have been sent to civil prison for non-payment while you wanted to challenge the order.
- Your spouse has filed a revision in the Delhi High Court against an order in your favour and you have received notice.
- You live abroad and need to challenge or defend a maintenance order passed in Delhi.
What a maintenance revision is, and why it is not an appeal
A maintenance order under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (old Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) cannot be appealed. The law gives one remedy against it: a revision petition in the High Court. In a revision the High Court checks whether the family court acted legally, considered the evidence properly and reached a figure that a reasonable judge could reach. It does not rehear the case from scratch.
That difference shapes everything. An appeal court can replace a figure it considers too high with one it considers fair. A revisional court interferes only where the order is perverse, ignores material evidence, misreads the law or is plainly unreasonable on the record. A husband who says Rs 25,000 a month is too much will not succeed merely by saying Rs 15,000 is fairer. He will succeed if he shows the family court took his gross salary as his take-home pay, ignored a court-ordered deduction, or overlooked the wife's own salary slips filed on record.
Maintenance under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act or the Domestic Violence Act follows other routes. Family court orders under the civil statutes go in appeal to a Division Bench, covered on our page on appeals against family court orders, and magistrates' orders under the Domestic Violence Act go first to the Sessions Court, covered on our page on Domestic Violence Act appeals and revisions.
The provisions that decide a maintenance revision
Section 144, BNSS (old Section 125 CrPC)
A person with sufficient means who neglects or refuses to maintain his wife, his child or his father or mother, when they cannot maintain themselves, can be ordered to pay a monthly allowance. 'Wife' includes a divorced wife who has not remarried. The court may order interim maintenance and expenses of the proceeding, and the interim application should, as far as possible, be decided within 60 days of service of notice. Maintenance is payable from the date of the order or, if the court so directs, from the date of the application.
Section 144(3) and (4), BNSS
If the order is not obeyed, the court can issue a warrant to recover the amount as a fine and can sentence the defaulter to imprisonment for up to one month for each month's allowance unpaid, or until payment. An application for recovery must be made within one year from the date the amount fell due. A wife is not entitled to maintenance if she is living in adultery, refuses without sufficient reason to live with her husband, or they live separately by mutual consent.
Sections 145 to 147, BNSS (old Sections 126 to 128 CrPC)
Section 145 sets the procedure and the place of filing, and allows an ex parte order to be set aside on an application made within three months. Section 146 lets either side ask the same court to alter the allowance when circumstances change. Section 147 deals with enforcement of the order in any place where the payer is.
Section 19(4) and (5), Family Courts Act 1984
The High Court may call for and examine the record of any Section 144 proceeding decided by a family court within its jurisdiction, to satisfy itself about the correctness, legality or propriety of the order. Section 19(5) says no other appeal or revision lies against a family court order, so the Sessions Court has no role once a family court has decided the case.
Sections 438 to 442, BNSS (old Sections 397 to 401 CrPC)
These are the general provisions on criminal revision. Section 438(2) bars revision against purely interlocutory orders, which matters when someone wants to challenge an interim maintenance order. The High Court can also act under Article 227 of the Constitution or under its inherent powers in Section 528 BNSS (old Section 482 CrPC) in a fit case.
Rajnesh v. Neha (Supreme Court, 2020)
The Supreme Court made it compulsory for both parties in every maintenance case to file a detailed affidavit of assets, income, expenses and liabilities, held that maintenance should be awarded from the date of application, laid down the factors for fixing the amount, and directed courts to adjust amounts awarded in parallel proceedings so that a husband does not pay twice for the same need.
Which court hears it and why
In Delhi, maintenance petitions under Section 144 BNSS are heard by the family courts, which sit in the district court complexes at Tis Hazari, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Patiala House among others; see Delhi family courts. The case is filed where the wife, child or parent lives, where the husband or son lives, or where the couple last lived together, so the family court that decided it may not be in the district where you now live.
Because the Family Courts Act gives the revisional power over family court orders to the High Court alone, every revision against a Section 144 order passed by a Delhi family court comes to the Delhi High Court, Sher Shah Road. It is heard by a single judge sitting on the criminal roster, registered as a criminal revision petition. Official listing details and case status are on the Delhi High Court's own website; this is a private law firm site.
If the order was passed outside Delhi, say by a family court in Gurugram or Ghaziabad, the revision lies to the Punjab and Haryana High Court or the Allahabad High Court, not to Delhi, even if one spouse now lives in Delhi. Moving the main case itself to a more convenient court is a different remedy, explained on our page on transfer of a matrimonial or criminal case.
Grounds that actually work in a maintenance revision
Revisions succeed on specific errors that can be shown from the record. The most common is a wrong assessment of income. Family courts sometimes take gross salary instead of net, count a house rent allowance the husband does not receive because he lives in a company flat, or attribute rental income from a property owned by the husband's father. Equally, they sometimes accept a self-employed husband's claim that his shop earns Rs 20,000 a month when his bank statements show deposits of several lakhs. Either way, if the documents were on the file and the order ignores them, that is a revisable error.
The second ground is non-compliance with Rajnesh v. Neha. If one side never filed the assets and liabilities affidavit, or the court fixed maintenance without looking at the affidavits, the High Court often sends the matter back for fresh decision. The third is a legal error on entitlement: refusing maintenance to a wife because she has a degree and 'can earn', when she has no actual income; or granting it despite clear evidence that she refused to live with the husband without sufficient reason. Earning capacity can be considered, but the question is what she actually earns and whether it is enough to live as she lived in the matrimonial home.
Other grounds include ignoring other dependants such as aged parents, failing to adjust maintenance already awarded under the Domestic Violence Act or Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, awarding maintenance to an adult son who is not disabled, and arithmetic errors in computing arrears. When Advocate B.K. Singh reads a maintenance order for a revision, he puts the order side by side with the two income affidavits and the bank statements, and marks every figure the judge used. If each figure can be traced to the record, a revision is rarely worth filing.
What the High Court will not do in a revision
The High Court will not reweigh oral evidence just because you disagree with the family court's view of who is telling the truth. It will not lower an amount because it feels a little high, or raise one because it feels a little low. It will not entertain new documents that were available but not produced in the family court, except in rare cases. And it will not decide the larger matrimonial dispute: who caused the separation is relevant only so far as it bears on whether the wife refused to live with the husband without sufficient reason.
For this reason a revision is not always the right step. If your income has fallen since the order, the correct remedy is an application to the same family court under Section 146 BNSS (old Section 127 CrPC) to alter the allowance; our guide on whether maintenance can be reduced if your income falls explains it. If the order was passed ex parte because you were never served, an application to set it aside within three months is quicker than a revision.
Interim maintenance orders: challenge or carry on?
Most fights are about interim maintenance, because it is fixed within months and then runs for years while the main petition is heard. Whether an interim order can be revised is a point that has been argued many times. It decides a right to money for a substantial period, and the Delhi High Court has entertained challenges to interim maintenance orders, but it interferes sparingly, often only where the figure is plainly unsupported by the record.
In practice the better course for the paying spouse is often to comply, push the main petition to evidence, and ensure the final order is made on proper material. A revision against an interim order that results only in a direction to pay the arrears first, while the main case stays where it was, costs time and money and wins nothing. The exception is an order that is clearly beyond the payer's means on the documents, where non-payment would lead to warrants and custody.
Step by step: filing a maintenance revision in the Delhi High Court
Get the certified copy
Apply to the family court for the certified copy of the order and, where possible, of the full record including the income affidavits, evidence and order sheets. The 90-day limitation runs from the date of the order, with the time spent obtaining the copy excluded if you apply promptly.
Review the record against the order
Your lawyer compares each finding with the documents filed: salary slips, ITRs, bank statements, property records and the Rajnesh affidavits. The aim is to identify specific errors, not general unhappiness.
Draft the revision petition
The petition sets out the facts, the order challenged, the grounds of revision with page references to the record, and the relief sought. Applications for stay, for exemption from filing certified copies of every document, and for condonation of delay (if late) are filed with it.
Filing and registry objections
The petition is e-filed or filed physically at the High Court. The registry checks it and may raise objections, such as missing annexures or illegible pages, which must be cured within the time allowed before the matter is listed.
First hearing
At the first hearing the single judge decides whether to issue notice. If notice is issued, the judge may pass an interim direction, commonly that the payer deposit all or part of the arrears and continue paying current maintenance. An unconditional stay of maintenance is uncommon.
Reply, record and arguments
The respondent files a reply. The High Court may call for the family court record. The matter is then argued, sometimes over several dates. Mediation at the Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre is often suggested where a wider settlement seems possible.
Judgment and after
The court may dismiss the revision, modify the amount, set the order aside and send the case back for fresh decision, or allow it. The amount as finally fixed is enforced through the family court.
Time and cost at each stage
| Stage | Typical time | Court fee and other costs (general) |
|---|---|---|
| Certified copy of order and record | 1 to 4 weeks | Copying charges at the family court |
| Drafting and filing the revision | 1 to 3 weeks after papers are ready | Small court fee on a criminal revision; check the current amount |
| Curing registry objections and first listing | 1 to 4 weeks | No additional court fee |
| Interim direction on arrears or stay | At the first or second hearing | Deposit of arrears if directed, which can be large |
| Pleadings and record | 2 to 6 months | Charges for paper books or e-copies |
| Final hearing and judgment | 6 months to 2 years from filing | No additional court fee |
| Mediation, if referred | 1 to 3 months alongside | No fee for court-annexed mediation |
Documents to bring to the first meeting
From the family court file
- The order under challenge, with the date of pronouncement
- The maintenance petition and the reply
- Both parties' affidavits of assets, income and liabilities
- Evidence affidavits and cross-examination, if the final order is challenged
- Order sheets, especially those recording interim orders and arrears
Income and expense proof (paying side)
- Salary slips for the last 12 months and Form 16
- Income tax returns for three years
- Bank statements for all accounts for at least a year
- Loan statements, EMIs and court-ordered deductions
- Proof of other dependants such as parents' medical bills
Need and income proof (receiving side)
- Proof of the wife's or parent's actual income, or its absence
- School fee receipts and children's expenses
- Rent agreement, medical bills and household expenses
- Evidence of the husband's lifestyle: property, vehicles, foreign travel, business accounts
If you are the one ordered to pay
Keep paying what you can while the revision is pending, and keep proof of every payment. Courts in Delhi look far more kindly at a husband who has paid current maintenance regularly and is disputing the arrears than at one who stopped paying the day the order was passed. Non-payment invites recovery warrants under Section 144(3), and the High Court frequently makes deposit of arrears a condition before it will even hear the revision on merits.
Be candid about income. Revisions are lost when the husband's own bank statements show credits he has not explained, or when he has resigned from a well-paid job shortly before the case to plead poverty. Courts treat deliberate unemployment as no excuse, and an able-bodied man is expected to earn. If your real problem is a later job loss, illness or a second family, file under Section 146 before the family court rather than a revision.
A software engineer in Gurugram paying maintenance under a Delhi family court order, for instance, should collect his offer letter, salary slips, EMI statements and any proof of support to his parents, and present them in a single, clear statement. The judge reading the revision has very little time; a clean table of income and outgoings is worth more than pages of allegations against the wife.
If you are the wife, child or parent claiming maintenance
A revision is also open to the person claiming maintenance. Wives use it when the family court has refused maintenance on a finding that she left without reason, or fixed an amount that ignores the husband's real income. Children's mothers use it when the court fixed one sum for wife and children together without considering school fees. The same discipline applies: show from the record where the family court went wrong.
If the husband has filed a revision against your order, do not stop the recovery proceedings unless the High Court has stayed them. File a short, documented reply, point to the affidavits and the husband's lifestyle evidence, and ask for a direction that arrears be deposited before the revision is heard. The High Court can and often does allow part of the deposited amount to be released to the wife during the revision.
Remember that orders from different courts are adjusted against each other after Rajnesh v. Neha. If you also have an interim maintenance order under the Domestic Violence Act or Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, disclose it. Concealment is the surest way to lose credibility in the High Court.
Parents claiming maintenance from adult children
Section 144 BNSS lets a father or mother who cannot maintain themselves claim maintenance from a son or daughter with sufficient means. These cases are fewer, but the revision procedure is the same. Parents also have a separate remedy under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 before the Maintenance Tribunal, headed by the SDM in Delhi, with an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal under that Act.
The two remedies can overlap. A parent already receiving maintenance under the Senior Citizens Act cannot expect a second full award under Section 144 for the same need. Where children argue that a sibling should share the burden, the court can consider it. The High Court in revision checks the same things: means, neglect, and whether the amount is supported by the record.
Mistakes that sink maintenance revisions
- Missing the 90 days. Limitation for a criminal revision is 90 days from the order under the Limitation Act. Delay can be condoned for sufficient cause, but a vague explanation after six months usually fails.
- Arguing facts the family court never saw. New salary slips or a new property document produced for the first time in the High Court rarely help. Revision is decided on the record.
- Stopping payment. A payer in heavy arrears who has paid nothing since the order is unlikely to get a hearing on merits until the arrears are deposited.
- Filing a revision when Section 146 is the remedy. A later fall in income is a reason to apply for alteration, not to challenge the original order.
- Hiding parallel orders. Not disclosing maintenance already being paid or received under another statute invites adverse comments and costs.
- Attacking the spouse instead of the order. Pages about the spouse's character do not show any error in the maintenance order and only irritate the court.
A made-up example: a shopkeeper in Lajpat Nagar
Here's a made-up example. Rohit runs a garments shop in Lajpat Nagar. His wife Kavita filed a maintenance petition under Section 144 BNSS in the family court at Saket for herself and their seven-year-old daughter. Rohit filed an income affidavit showing Rs 35,000 a month. Kavita filed photographs of the shop and an affidavit saying he earned at least Rs 2 lakh a month. Rohit's ITRs showed Rs 6 lakh a year; his bank statements, which Kavita obtained through the court, showed monthly credits averaging Rs 4 lakh.
The family court took Rohit's income as Rs 1.5 lakh a month, without explaining how, and awarded Rs 40,000 a month to Kavita and the child from the date of the application. Arrears stood at nearly Rs 9 lakh. Rohit filed a revision in the Delhi High Court arguing that the income finding had no basis.
At the first hearing the High Court issued notice and directed Rohit to pay Rs 25,000 a month going forward and deposit Rs 3 lakh towards arrears within four weeks, part of which was released to Kavita. At the final hearing the court found that the bank credits, though they included sales receipts and not pure profit, showed a business far larger than the ITRs suggested, and that the family court's figure, while not reasoned in detail, was within a reasonable range. The revision was dismissed with a direction to clear the arrears in instalments. Had the family court ignored the bank statements altogether, or relied on a figure with no support at all, the result might have been a remand.
NRIs and spouses living abroad
A husband working in the Gulf, the UK or the US can be ordered to pay maintenance under Section 144 by a Delhi family court, and the income is assessed on his foreign salary, adjusted for the cost of living where he lives. He can challenge the order by revision through a lawyer in Delhi without travelling, and the Delhi High Court routinely hears such matters on video conference.
For a wife whose husband is abroad, enforcement is the harder part. Recovery warrants operate against assets in India, and the family court can attach bank accounts or property here. If the husband has nothing in India and does not return, practical recovery depends on the law of the country where he lives. Our page on NRI matrimonial disputes discusses these problems, and the courts may also restrain a defaulting husband from leaving India when he next visits.
After the High Court decides
If the revision is dismissed, the family court's order stands and is enforced as before. If the amount is modified, the arrears are recalculated from the date the High Court specifies, and any excess already paid may be adjusted against future payments. If the matter is sent back, the family court decides it afresh on the directions given, usually with a time limit.
A further challenge lies to the Supreme Court by special leave petition under Article 136, but the Supreme Court rarely interferes with maintenance figures; see our page on Supreme Court SLPs from the Delhi High Court. Section 146 remains open to both sides whenever circumstances change: the wife can ask for enhancement as the child's school fees rise, and the husband can ask for reduction if his income genuinely falls. Advocate B.K. Singh's usual advice to clients after a revision is decided is to keep the payment records and income documents updated, because the next application under Section 146 is often only a couple of years away.
What to do this week
Note the date of the maintenance order and count 90 days from it. Apply today for the certified copy of the order and the income affidavits. Collect your own salary slips, ITRs and bank statements, or the documents showing your needs if you are the claimant. Keep paying or keep pursuing recovery, as the case may be, while you decide. For background on how the amount is fixed in the first place, read how maintenance is decided under BNSS Section 144.
If you want Advocate B.K. Singh to read the order with your documents and tell you whether a revision or a Section 146 application is the better course, or to keep you updated on changes in maintenance law, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
Can I appeal against a Section 125 or Section 144 maintenance order?
No appeal lies against a maintenance order under Section 144 BNSS or old Section 125 CrPC. The remedy against a Delhi family court order is a revision petition in the Delhi High Court under Section 19(4) of the Family Courts Act read with the BNSS revision provisions.
What is the time limit for filing a maintenance revision in Delhi High Court?
Ninety days from the date of the order, with the time taken to obtain the certified copy excluded if you applied promptly. A late revision must come with an application for condonation of delay giving a clear explanation for the whole period.
Will the High Court stay the maintenance order while the revision is pending?
An unconditional stay is uncommon. The usual direction is that the payer continue current maintenance, sometimes at a reduced interim figure, and deposit all or part of the arrears, which may be released to the claimant.
Can the High Court increase maintenance in a revision filed by the wife?
Yes. A wife, child or parent can file a revision for enhancement if the family court's figure ignores evidence of the payer's income or the claimant's needs. The High Court can raise the amount or send the case back for a fresh decision.
My salary has dropped after the maintenance order. Should I file a revision?
Usually not. A change in circumstances after the order is a ground for an application under Section 146 BNSS before the same family court to alter the allowance. A revision is for errors in the original order.
Is a wife who is working entitled to maintenance under Section 144?
She can be, if her income is not enough to maintain herself at the standard she enjoyed in the matrimonial home. The court compares both incomes and needs; a small salary does not automatically defeat a claim.
Can I be jailed for not paying maintenance while my revision is pending?
Yes, unless the High Court stays recovery. The family court can issue a warrant for recovery and sentence a defaulter to up to one month's imprisonment for each month's unpaid allowance. Paying current maintenance and seeking a stay on arrears is the safer course.
Do I need to come to Delhi for a maintenance revision hearing if I live abroad?
Generally no. The revision is argued by your lawyer, and the Delhi High Court hears many matters through hybrid or video conference. Your affidavit can be attested abroad and your personal presence is required only if the court specifically directs it.