Omar Abdullah directed to pay Rs 1.5 lakh maintenance, instead of Rs 75,000, to estranged wife

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to pay Rs 1.5 lakh/month maintenance to estranged wife Payal Abdullah, to meet the expenses.

Notably, the trial court in earlier order had fixed this amount at Rs 75,000 per month. Opposition this, his estranged wife Payal Abdullah had moved High Court seeking enhanced maintenance.

A report in Bar and Bench said that the court also asked Omar Abdullah to pay additional Rs 60,000 for the education of their son, though saying that father was not only legally responsible for education of child, who has turned major.

Payal Abdullah had moved Delhi High Court in July 2018 against the ‘inadequate’ compensation of Rs 75,000, as granted by a trial court. In her petition, Omar’s estranged wife had claimed that the maintenance wasn’t enough to meet the expenses of their child and pleaded for enhancement of the same.

Omar, in his reply, had opposed the move and said that Payal was ‘capable enough’ of living a ‘lavish life’ as she has steady income to look after herself and hence her case wasn’t fit for seeking any maintenance.

“Payal has greater means than Omar which has been tried to conceal,” his counsel had told the court.

The trial court had granted maintenance of Rs 75,000 per month to Payal Abdullah and Rs 25,000 for their son until he attains the age of 18.

Omar Abdullah had in 2016 also filed a plea in court, seeking divorce from Payal, which got rejected. The court had said that he didn’t give enough reasons for irretrievable breakdown of marriage and didn’t provide enough ground to prove cruelty.