The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the operation of a family court order that had granted interim maintenance of Rs 5,000 per month to a woman who is facing trial for allegedly attempting to murder her husband by setting him on fire.

Justice Kirti Singh passed the order Tuesday while issuing notice for May 25, on a criminal revision petition filed by the husband challenging the family court’s order dated August 25, 2025. The high court also condoned a delay of 149 days in filing the revision petition.

The family court at Ludhiana (holding camp court at Khanna) had awarded the interim maintenance under Section 125 CrPC in a petition filed by the wife while the trial for the alleged attempted murder is still pending before the additional sessions judge, Jalandhar.

In the revision petition, the husband through his lawyer, advocate Loveneet Thakur, contended that the wife had poured an inflammable liquid (spirit chemical) on him and set him ablaze on the intervening night of May 13-14, 2020, while he was sleeping. He suffered 45 per cent burns and remained admitted at CMC Hospital, Ludhiana for more than four months. He has already undergone eight surgeries, with doctors recommending a ninth, and continues to require specialised garments and regular medical care. Advocate Thakur argued that the man is the sole earning member of the family and has been rendered financially and physically incapacitated by the very act for which the wife is facing trial.

An FIR was registered on May 15, 2020, under Sections 307, 326-A and 120-B IPC. The wife remained absconding for over a year despite repeated rejection of her anticipatory bail applications up to the Supreme Court. She was arrested on October 21, 2021, after the high court’s intervention. The trial is still at the stage of evidence.

In the high court, Advocate Thakur submitted that granting maintenance to the wife in these circumstances would amount to rewarding a heinous act of domestic violence and would cause irreparable harm to a victim who is himself struggling with massive medical expenses and loss of livelihood.

The high court has stayed the family court’s maintenance order till the next date of hearing, providing immediate relief to the burn victim.