New Delhi, Oct. 11 -- Retirement savings cannot be treated as a substitute for monthly income when courts decide maintenance claims, the Delhi High Court has clarified. While the accumulated retirement corpus may be considered when assessing a person's overall financial resources, only the interest and other returns actually generated from investments can be counted as recurring income.

In its 8 October judgment in Meenakshi Batra v. Vijay Kumar Batra, a Division Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Renu Bhatnagar said a retired person cannot be expected to consume accumulated retirement savings simply because the corpus is substantial. However, the court also made clear that having savings does not automatically disqualify a spouse fro...