It often follows a pattern. A maintenance or divorce petition is filed, and almost overnight the other spouse’s income seems to shrink, a joint account is emptied, the family business shows sudden losses, or a property quietly changes hands into a relative’s name. The spouse who ran the household for years — and knew the family was comfortable — is suddenly told there is “no money.”
If that feels familiar, the law is not as helpless as it looks. Indian courts deciding maintenance, alimony and settlement disputes have steadily built tools to compel honest financial disclosure and to see through assets parked in other names. The starting point is simple: a spouse cannot plead poverty while quietly sitting on hidden wealth.
The duty to disclose your finances honestly
In any maintenance or matrimonial dispute, both spouses owe the court a duty of full and frank financial disclosure. Maintenance is meant to let a spouse and children live roughly as they did during the marriage — so the court has to know the real income, assets and liabilities of each side. Hiding or understating them is not a clever tactic; it is a fraud on the court that can rebound badly on the person who tries it.
This duty runs across the laws under which these claims are brought — maintenance provisions in criminal law, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, the Special Marriage Act, 1954, and protection orders under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Whatever the route, the court’s task is the same: find the truth about the money.
The affidavit of assets and income
The most important development here is the Supreme Court’s decision in Rajnesh v. Neha (2020). To stop the endless game of concealed income and conflicting claims, the Court directed that in maintenance proceedings both parties must file a sworn affidavit of disclosure of assets and liabilities. This format has since been adopted widely across family courts.
In practice such an affidavit asks each spouse to set out, on oath, things like:
- Salary, business or professional income, rental income and other earnings, with supporting documents.
- Bank accounts, fixed deposits, shares, mutual funds and other investments.
- Movable and immovable property — flats, land, vehicles, jewellery.
- Loans, EMIs and genuine liabilities.
- Standard of living, recurring expenses and dependants.
Because it is on oath, a false or incomplete affidavit exposes the maker to consequences for perjury and for misleading the court, and it lets the judge draw an adverse inference against them. That single requirement does a lot of the work of dragging hidden money into the light.
How courts dig deeper: discovery and interrogatories
When the affidavit looks thin or untrue, the court’s civil-procedure toolkit comes into play. A spouse can apply for discovery and inspection of documents — asking the other side to produce bank statements, income-tax returns, GST filings, balance sheets, property papers and sale deeds. They can also serve interrogatories: written questions the other spouse must answer on oath, useful for pinning down vague claims like “the business is not mine” or “that flat belongs to my father.”
Courts can also summon records directly from third parties — banks, employers, the Registrar of Companies, sub-registrar offices and income-tax authorities. Income-tax returns are particularly powerful: a person who has declared a healthy income to the tax department cannot comfortably tell the family court they earn next to nothing. Inconsistencies between what is told to the tax office and what is told to the matrimonial court are exactly what judges look for. You can read more about the broader money issues in our overview of family and divorce law.
Assets parked in other people’s names
A common move is to hold wealth in someone else’s name — a parent, sibling, friend or a shell arrangement — while keeping real control and enjoyment of it. Putting a name on paper does not, by itself, defeat a spouse’s claim. Courts look at the substance: who actually paid for the asset, who controls and benefits from it, and whether the “owner’s” finances could ever have funded it.
Two cautions are worth noting. First, the law on benami transactions — property held in one person’s name but really belonging to another — is governed by a dedicated statute and carries its own consequences, but it is a technical area best assessed with proper advice. Second, transferring or gifting away property after a dispute has begun, purely to defeat a spouse’s maintenance or settlement claim, can be challenged as a transfer made to defraud and can be ignored by the court. The timing of sudden “gifts” and transfers often tells its own story.
What happens when a spouse hides assets
Concealment tends to backfire. Where a spouse refuses to disclose or is caught understating income, a court can:
- Draw an adverse inference — assume the person earns or owns more than admitted, and fix maintenance accordingly.
- Assess income on the visible standard of living — foreign trips, luxury cars, expensive schools and lifestyle spending betray hidden earnings.
- Order interim maintenance early so the dependent spouse is not starved out during a long fight.
- Treat false statements as perjury and contempt, damaging that party’s credibility on every other issue too.
Practical steps a spouse can take
If you suspect assets are being hidden, quiet preparation matters more than confrontation:
- Gather what you can lawfully access — copies of past bank and credit-card statements, income-tax returns, property and loan documents, business papers, salary slips, and photographs of jewellery or valuables you have a right to.
- Note the lifestyle — cars, holidays, school fees, EMIs, club memberships. Lifestyle is admissible evidence of real income.
- Track sudden changes — accounts emptied, businesses suddenly “loss-making,” or property transferred right after the dispute began.
- Insist on the disclosure affidavit and, if it is incomplete, ask the court for discovery, interrogatories and third-party summonses.
- Do not snoop unlawfully — hacking an email or phone, or forging documents, can hurt your case and create separate liability. Let the court’s powers do the heavy lifting.
The honest spouse is usually in a stronger position than they fear. The court’s machinery is built precisely to test claims of poverty against the reality of bank records, tax returns and visible lifestyle. If you are weighing a claim, our note on family and divorce law explains how maintenance and settlement issues fit together.
Frequently Asked Questions
My spouse claims to have no money but lives well — can the court see through this?
Yes. Courts routinely assess real income from lifestyle, tax returns and bank records, and can draw an adverse inference where the claimed income does not match how a person actually lives.
What is the affidavit of assets and income?
It is a sworn statement, following the framework laid down by the Supreme Court in Rajnesh v. Neha, in which each spouse discloses income, assets, liabilities and expenses. A false affidavit can amount to perjury and lets the court infer concealed wealth.
Can I get my spouse’s bank statements and tax returns produced in court?
Yes. Through discovery, interrogatories and summonses, a court can direct a spouse and third parties such as banks, employers and tax authorities to produce financial records.
My spouse put property in a relative’s name — is it beyond reach?
Not automatically. Courts look at who paid for and controls the asset rather than the name on paper, and transfers made to defeat a maintenance or settlement claim can be challenged. This is a technical area where specific advice is important.
What happens if my spouse is caught hiding assets?
The court can fix maintenance on an assumed higher income, treat false statements as perjury and contempt, and view that spouse as less credible on every other issue in the case.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws change and every situation is different; please consult a qualified advocate about your specific matter.
