The Supreme Court has taken a major step towards protecting women from abandonment, ruling that there is no link between maintenance and consummation of marriage or rukhsati. The decision, authored by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, unequivocally affirms that maintenance or alimony is an unconditional legal duty which is tied to the solemnisation of a valid marriage and not a conditional benefit subject to patriarchal discretion. Simply put, a valid nikah is all that is needed to make maintenance payments mandatory.
The case reached the apex court via an appeal of a Lahore High Court decision that denied a woman maintenance because her marriage had not been consummated. The SC’s description of the LHC’s reasoning as “patriarchal” also illustrates significantly progressive decision-making in the SC, as it will have the knock-on effect of adding a punitive penalty to men who use divorce as a threat — many men refuse to pay maintenance unless required to by a court after a long and arduous process.
The ruling shifts the burden of evidence onto the husband, who must now prove why he does not need to pay maintenance. He must now show evidence of the divorce being the woman’s fault, either through abandonment or some other serious marital failing that proves she has withdrawn from the marital relationship in its entirety.
On a purely legal level, the ruling also addresses a court split, as the Islamabad High Court in 2021 had essentially ruled that under the letter of the law, maintenance is required regardless of other factors — though that specific case dealt with a wife’s employment income, independent wealth, and the length of separation.
However, the real test for the SC’s judgement lies in implementation. Many areas where divorce and maintenance issues are most common, like the far-flung ones, the writ of the court is still seriously limited. Lower courts and local authorities must thus internalise this rights-based approach and avoid lapsing into patriarchal stereotypes.
