5 years old settlement, but no maintenance provided till now

Hi! Thanks for the question! Here you can have the money recovered from the husband first through court orders under section 20 of the Domestic Violence Act where the magistrate has the power to order the payment of maintenance amount in lump sums or monthly payments and may even attach his movable property for the recovery. In case of failure of payment, he can even be imprisoned for a period upto 30 days in a civil prison until the payment is made if the courts seems it to be necessary.

Secondly, for the divorce you will have to have him appear in the court by giving him a notice through a reputed divorce lawyer and as you do not have a link to him, you have a few options that you can give a try. It could be a search over internet using social media, trying to get his address from his employer, getting help from the post office as they can have the modified address details,etc. You can even have the property records checked if you know that he has a property in certain jurisdiction, the concerned authority can help you locate him if they have the modified details. This will need good and actual research in many other ways.

After you discover the address, either get a mutual divorce or serve a personal notice to him by engaging a lawyer and then get separated legally with the help of a lawyer who will help you in divirce proceedings. Read this link once for getting a proper note on step by step procedure for divorce and various other things that you should know - https://www.vakilno1.com/legal-advice/divorce-mutual-consent-india-step-step-procedure.html 

Good Luck!

Thanks for your valuable addition ma'am. Adv Kamakshi is right and her addition will help you better prepare your case and holding stirdy against the questions from the court.

(Regarding your present need of a peni you can simply go in for live in relationship rather than seeking divorce)
Though I cannot fully understand your concern, still as per what was told to me, if the female lives in with any male (apart from husband), the husband can file an adultery case. So if she goes in for live-in option, wont that create further problems?

(If you want divorce from husband you should file divorce ptition in court, court will first send notice to husband. If he wont appear it will give exparte divorce, exparte divorce can be set aside even afer 2 years, so there if enough room for fair play. cunning play)                                                                       As you rightly said, instead of maintenance, the female is more interested in legal divorce, but due to long gap, she is not having the said husband's address. More over, he hasn't got any permanent property too. So where to send the legal notice?

Is there any alternative way?

Instead of taking the legal route my suggestion would be to go all out and trace your husband (Step 1) . This is not a herculian task and can be done with some intelligence/ground work.

Secondly approach him with an offer to give divorce by mutual consent and in return you would not claim any pending OR future maintenance for self AND /OR child. ( u can try to bargain as well in case he agrees to clear dues etc)

Also if ur getting married again then let the future husband take responsibility of ur children and u can also contribute. If ur future husband is not ready then on what grounds are you getting married to him ????

Dear Prav,

File the execution of the order.

Also check the Limitation for filing of the execution of the order.

Regards

kapoor.legal@gmail.com