AUTHOR-KAUSHIK DAS


National Law University Odisha



Maintenance of Wife: Hindu Marriage Act

Often, we have seen that the marriages which have been solemnized, at a later stage are broken up due to soured relations. In these instances, the wife and children may become dependent on the Husband after separation, because of their inability to generate enough financial resources. The concept of maintenance takes center stage at this point. Maintenance can be likened to an amount paid by the husband to his wife, which allows the wife or dependent children to fulfill their basic requirements. Maintenance has since a long period of time been recognized in India. Since long according to the tradition of the country, maintenance has been termed as the spiritual duty of the husband to maintain the wife, under the Hindu law. Some people have questioned the process of providing maintenance though as well. They have compared it to the payment of charity to the wife by the husband, but this is further from the truth and in no sense can maintenance be viewed as charity.


In India there are specific legal frameworks that have been put in place to protect the provisions of basic necessities to the dependents post-separation in the marriage. In the case of Hindus, the same is contained in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and also to a certain extent in the Hindu adoption and maintenance Act, 1956.


The main provision to be viewed to understand the provisions of maintenance in the Hindu Marriage Act is Section 24. Section 24 allows the grant of maintenance to the wife, so that she may be able to receive financial assistance and thereby enabling her maintenance during the pendency of proceedings between the parties. In certain instances, it is not just the husband who is required to provide maintenance. On the basis of the financial situation between both the parties, the Wife may also be required to provide financial assistance to the husband in the form of maintenance. The main purpose of the provision in Section 24 therefore, is to provide financial assistance for the party unable to maintain themselves during proceedings. Thereby, it is impliedly necessary that the applications for accessing this right is processed as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Yet, it is hereby essential to note that if the main case itself is dismissed then the court cannot use the provisions in section 24 for granting relief by any applications filed by the parties.


Another key aspect of Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage act is that it can only be applied for the period when the marriage is viewed to be valid. If the marriage becomes void by any method or law, then the claim for maintenance doesn’t lie under Section 24 of the act.


Often though one of the spouses will have the custody of the child. The section though not explicitly mentioning individuals other than the husband and wife, will allow to impliedly provide for more maintenance to the party which has the custody of the child for the care and other allied reasons.


The proceedings are another aspect to regard as well. The proceedings under section 24 of the act have been held to be interlocutory proceedings rather than original proceedings. It has in itself, been compared with proceedings under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Though, this view has been clarified by the Supreme Court, which has differentiated the two proceedings.


The main provost behind the provision of maintenance is to allow one of the spouses to maintain their standard of living equivalent to the other when the proceedings are pending, and also in accordance to the standard which was there before the separation. Maintenance ceases when the alimony holder is deceased or remarries.
Factors for determining maintenance


There are various factors on the basis of which the maintenance is determined. These are:


  1. When there is no separate source of income for the spouse.


This is one of the key factors which the court looks at before granting the maintenance or alimony. Here the dependability of the spouse to the husband or wife is checked, as well as there being the ability to have income separate from that which the spouse is possessing.


  1. The court will also assess the standard of living which the litigating parties had in their home before the separation.
  2. If the marriage has led to childbirth the court will also assess the expenses which are required to maintain the children, and the same will later be weighed when providing maintenance to a spouse who has the custody of the child.
  3. The court will also assess the requirement to maintain the same standard of living of the spouse as it was before the separation.
  4. Skills, capabilities and educational background of the spouse to earn his/her living and maintain themselves, etc.




                                                      Types of Maintenance                                                  


A competent court after analyzing the factors as mentioned above grants the maintenance on the following basis:


·       Temporary Maintenance –


Also referred to as the maintenance pendente lite, it is awarded by the courts during the continuation of the proceedings related to divorce. The main reason for providing this type of maintenance is to meet the necessary and immediate expenses of the spouse, who is of course, one of the parties of the proceeding. The maintenance under this form is explicitly dealt with by Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act.


·       Permanent Maintenance-


This kind of maintenance is provided periodically or on a continued basis. His is complacently done after the disposal of the proceedings. This is dealt with by Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and either of the spouses is entitled to claim maintenance under this section.

A section magistrate of the first class has also been provided with the power to provide a monthly allowance to one of the parties or dependents. These can be:


  • The parents.
  • Wife.
  • To a legitimate or illegitimate minor child who are incapable of maintaining themselves.
  • Legitimate or illegitimate major child not being a married daughter, unable to maintain themselves due to physical injury or abnormality
  • Till the period a married daughter has attained majority if the husband is unable to maintain her.
  • His or her father or mother if they are unable to maintain themselves, whoever neglects or refuses to do so.


If in a case the wife has agreed and is living separately without sufficient reasons and, or, is living in an adulterous relationship with some other individual or when they have separated through mutual consent, then the wife is not entitled to receive any allowance.


Conclusion


In brief, we have discussed the requirements, factors, and provisions of maintenance in the legal framework in India pertaining to marriages and the dependent parties in the process of proceedings for separation.




Disclaimer: The author doesn’t advertise or advocate the usage of this brief introductory article to the concept of marriage as a legal guide. The reader is advised to be aware of the same and is advised to approach a legal professional for learning the legal processes required for the proceedings related to divorce, or in availing maintenance from their spouses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
SABRIMALA ISSUE Author-Nishi Singh  Introduction : A very fresh or strong socio legal issue is the case of SABRIMALA TEMPLE. A Socio-legal study is an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the law, legal phenomenon, and relationships between these and wider society. Both theoretical and empirical work is included, and perspectives and methodologies are drawn from the humanities as well as the social sciences. India being a democratic and secular country has the several including right to equality, right to practise all religion and to worship all temples, right to equality and is also against untouchability. These are fundamental rights mentioned under Article (14&15), Article (25) and Article (17) of constitution. But these are not seen these days. Mentioning the fresh example of the recent case happened in “ Sabrimala Temple ” which is in Kerala, where women were not allowed to enter sabrimala case to worship lord ayyapa as they
Read more
Image
gender inequality and constitutional rights of women to fight it Author- Dakshina Sogani, Amity Law School, Noida. Gender inequality and constitutional rights of women to fight it A woman is a female human being with a combination of chromosome “XX” and man is a male human being with a chromosome “XY”. They are the familiar genders of our society other than the third gender and rest to be found. On the biological ground there are a lotof differences in the making of a body of the man and the woman. Woman are so beautifully created and blessed with an ability to give birth to a new life and most importantly it isn’t possible without the help of a man. When we see it assiduously, we will find that how amazingly the life of two is entangled, one is not enough. Both has been given their separate task to accomplish a better life. This is how the life cycle has been created. A women is a daughter, amother, a wife, a grandmother but still people tends to find it trouble
Read more
Image
Rules of Inheritance in Muslim Marriages AUTHOR : KareenaBakhtyarpuri 3 rd Year, B.A. LL.B. Student at Institute of Law, Nirma. EDITOR: Kaushik Das Student at National Law University Odisha, Cuttack, Odisha. In general parlance, inheritance is the practice of passing a person’s property, rights & duties, debts, titles etc. when he dies. However, in terms of law, inheritance exclusively refers to the succession of property of a deceased person to the heirs. Inheritance Under the terms of a will intestate The inheritance can be as per the terms given in the will or as per the intestate laws if a person dies without making a will. However, the rules of inheritance vary among societies and all the personal laws law deal with a different set of rules of inheritance. The Muslim personal laws of succession have four major sources of Islamic law namely Holy Quran, Sunna, Ijma & the Qiyas . However, inheritance is now considered to be an i
Read more