This issue was discussed by the court in Sailendra nath ghosh vs State of West Bengal, 1997.

In this case the petitioner husband applied for divorce and the wife filed two applications, first under section 125 of CRPC in criminal court and second under section 24 of hindu marriage act in matrimonial court. Both the application was allowed by the respective courts due to which husband become liable to pay his wife twice in a month.

Husband (petitioner) contended before the court to adjust the amount of passed under section 24 of HMA against the amount passed under section 125 of CRPC.

The court observed that:

• In Gossai ch. Das vs Beauty Das, Justice J N Hore held that the proceeding under section 125 of CRPC is independent and not affected by the proceeding under section 24 of HMA. The application under section 125 of CRPC is maintainable even if the order under section 24 of HMA is passed by matrimonial court. He also said that alimony under section 24 of HMA by the husband to his wife may be adjusted or suitably modified from the maintenance allowed under section 125 of CRPC.
• In Geeta Chatterjee vs Prabhat kumar the division bench allowed the adjustment of award by magistrate court against award made by matrimonial court.
• In Pushpa devi vs Anup Singh, 1990 the said that application under section 125 and section 24 both are independent of each other. Order under section 24 is for temporary basis it cannot override the order passed under section 125 of crpc. High court is also of the view that the magistrate where passing the order under section 125 give such direction of adjustment of amount passed by the civil court till the order under section 24 subsists.

Court after observing these points held that the amount payable to wife is liable to be adjusted till the order under section 24 of HMA subsist. The husband is not liable to pay the maintenance twice in a month.