‘In a position to pay more': Calcutta HC orders Mohammed Shami to pay Rs 4 lakh a month as interim maintenance to wife, daughter

Indian Express

a day ago

Cricketer Mohammed Shami has been ordered by the Calcutta High Court to pay an interim amount of Rs 4 lakh per month as alimony to his estranged wife Hasin Jahan and their daughter.
On Tuesday, Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee directed that Rs 1,50,000 be paid to the wife and Rs 2,50,000 to the daughter until the disposal of a case of alleged domestic violence against Shami.
The court said that the amounts would 'be fair and reasonable to ensure financial stability for both the petitioners until the disposal of the main application'.
'(The) amount is to be paid by the husband from the date of filing of the application under section 23 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (PWDV) Act,' the court said.
In 2023, a district sessions court had ordered that Shami pay Rs 1.30 lakh a month in total to his wife and daughter. This order had been challenged by Shami's wife in the Calcutta High Court.
The Calcutta HC Justice said in his order, 'It is not clear what was the basis of fixing the interim maintenance amounts (of) Rs 50,000 and Rs 80,000 in the context of the affidavit of assets and liabilities and other materials placed on record in support of (Shami's) income,' while also noting that the question of granting an 'excessive' amount of alimony and maintenance does not arise.
Stating that Shami 'is in a position to pay a higher amount', the High Court said, 'The petitioner wife, who has remained unmarried and is living independently with the child, is entitled to a levelled maintenance that she enjoyed during her marriage which reasonably secures her future as well as the future of the child.'
Speaking to The Indian Express, Hasin Jahan said, 'We are relieved at the order. As a father, if he gave the alimony before, it would have benefitted the child. Now, I can send her to a good school and give her all that she has been deprived of. He has never tried to communicate with his own daughter.'
In her plea to the district sessions court in 2023, Jahan had sought Rs 10 lakh in total — Rs 7 lakh for herself and Rs 3 lakh for her daughter.
Shami married Hasin Jahan in 2014. In 2018, Jahan had lodged an FIR at the Jadavpur police station against him and his family alleging 'physical and mental torture' under Section 12 of the PWDV Act and 'sustained indifference and neglect' of her minor daughter. She had also accused Shami of harassment for dowry, match fixing and avoiding 'responsibility' for her family's expenses.