Where the husband earns Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 a month

This is the band where the twenty five percent benchmark does most of its work. There is usually a real salary slip, the income is not seriously disputed, and the argument is about proportion rather than about what he actually earns.

Income brackets are applied to the figure in today's money, not to the rupee figure the court wrote down. Banding on nominal income would drop every pre-2000 case into the lowest bracket and make this page meaningless.