Former husbands can now ask ex wives for maintenance

Last Updated on Monday, 12 February 2024, 21:29 by Denis Chabrol

The High Court on Monday ruled that former husbands can also now apply for financial maintenance from their ex wives, finding that the Matrimonial Causes Act which provided that only men were liable to pay maintenance violates Guyana’s Constitution, Attorney-at-Law Tamara Evelyn-Khan said.

The decision, which was handed down by Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, essentially means that either a man or a woman can now apply f0r maintenance from the other.

The High Court found that section 14 of the Matrimonial Causes Act, Chapter 45:02 is discriminatory on the basis of sex and gender and is therefore unconstitutional as being in violation of Article 149 of the Constitution of Guyana.

Just before the landmark ruling, that law had provided for to the extent that on a decree for dissolution or nullity of marriage, men only to pay a gross or annual sum of money to or maintain their former wives, and not for women to pay a gross or annual sum of money to or maintain their former husbands.