Till the order of the magistrate under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code for giving maintenance to your wife (or former wife) is not changed or modified or cancelled by the court, you are required to comply with it and keep paying maintenance.
However, Section 127 of the Cr.P.C. empowers the Magistrate to change or alter or cancel the order of maintenance which has been passed by him under Section 125. In particular, Section 127(3)(a) provides that where the woman has, after the date of divorce, remarried, the Magistrate may cancel the maintenance order passed under Section 125 from the date of her remarriage.
So, if you have evidence to show that your wife has remarried after divorce, then you may file an application under Section 127 Cr.P.C. to the Magistrate for cancelling the order of maintenance. There is every likelihood that the Magistrate may cancel the maintenance if you provide the proof. So, instead of you taking the decision yourself to stop maintenance to your wife because she has remarried, the better course would be to apply under Section 127 and to get the order from the Magistrate to cancel the maintenance and then stop paying maintenance to her.
Section 127 of the Cr.P.C. is reproduced here for your information:
“127. Alteration in allowance.— (1) On proof of a change in the circumstances of any person, receiving, under Section 125 a monthly allowance for the maintenance or interim maintenance, or ordered under the same section to pay a monthly allowance for the maintenance, or interim maintenance, to his wife, child, father or mother, as the case may be, the Magistrate may make such alteration, as he thinks fit, in the allowance for the maintenance or the interim maintenance, as the case may be.
(2) Where it appears to the Magistrate that, in consequence of any decision of a competent Civil Court, any order made under Section 125 should be cancelled or varied, he shall cancel the order or, as the case may be, vary the same accordingly.
(3) Where any order has been made under Section 125 in favour of a woman who has been divorced by, or has obtained a divorce from, her husband, the Magistrate shall, if he is satisfied that—
(a) the woman has, after the date of such divorce, remarried, cancel such order as from the date of her remarriage;
(b) the woman has been divorced by her husband and that she has received, whether before or after the date of the said order, the whole of the sum which, under any customary or personal law applicable to the parties, was payable on such divorce, cancel such order,—
(i) in the case where such sum was paid before such order, from the date on which such order was made,
(ii) in any other case, from the date of expiry of the period, if any, for which maintenance has been actually paid by the husband to the woman;
(c) the woman has obtained a divorce from her husband and that she had voluntarily surrendered her rights to maintenance or interim maintenance, as the case may be, after her divorce, cancel the order from the date thereof.
(4) At the time of making any decree for the recovery of any maintenance or dowry by any person, to whom a monthly allowance for the maintenance and interim maintenance or any of them has been ordered to be paid under Section 125, the Civil Court shall take into account the sum which has been paid to, or recovered by, such person as monthly allowance for the maintenance and interim maintenance or any of them, as the case may be, in pursuance of the said order.”
Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.
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