Kochi: Kerala High Court has warned the Ernakulam Family Court judge for issuing a non-bailable arrest warrant against an Elamakkara native in a maintenance case while petitions were pending before it.
A single bench observed that explanation given by the judge on March 15 and 18 were not satisfactory. It also dropped all proceedings against the petitioner with a warning to the judge to be more careful and diligent while complying with the orders/directions issued by it.
The petitioner had filed a revision petition against the order of family court asking to pay maintenance of Rs 15,000 per month to his wife. The court had altered the condition and directed the petitioner to deposit arrears of Rs 26,000 in three monthly instalments of an almost equal amount.
The petitioner had remitted Rs 90,000 each in two instalments. Since petitioner was under acute financial crisis owing to demonetisation, he sought time to pay the balance amount of Rs 80,000.
The high court had extended the time for three months on February 27.
When the case came up before family court on February 28, counsel for the petitioner submitted that deadline for remittance of the balance amount had been extended for three more months and requested a few days to produce the order.
The petitioner was shocked after noticing that family court had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him.
He submitted that the family court had violated the order ofHigh Court. Following this, the HC sought an explanation from the Family Court judge. But it was not satisfactory, the order stated.
