A husband who is unable to support himself is entitled to get maintenance from his earning wife during the proceedings of the matrimonial dispute, the Allahabad high court ruled on Thursday.

On a petition filed by one Santosh Kumar Gupta seeking maintenance from his working wife on the ground that his income was too meagre to enable him to maintain himself, the Lucknow bench of the court recently ruled that the provision of interim maintenance during proceedings of the matrimonial disputes was applicable to both the spouses.

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The single-judge Bench headed by Justice D P Singh directed the wife to pay Rs 2,000 per month to Kumar, an employee in the state owned Uptron Corporation, which had been declared a sick unit following which the petitioner was getting only Rs 1,000 per month.

His wife, who works in a bank and draws a salary of Rs 13,000 per month, had filed the divorce petition against him in a family court.

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The husband also filed an application before the court seeking direction to the wife to pay him maintenance and litigation expenses.

The family court, however, rejected the husband's application.