Shruti 18 February 2022

Claiming maintenance from parents

I lost my job due to Covid and moved back in with my parents. My parents are retired and they are old fashioned and believe that women are inferior to men and should be treated as such which I endured every day of my life when I was a child, such as in education food clothing etc. and so I could not get a good paying job like my brother. Also, in 2005/2015, they wrote Registered Will so that all of their money goes to their son, and not to daughter. But now, due to my parents bearing my monthly expenses, my brother has threatened my parents that he will not take care of them in old age (80+) because his inheritance is getting smaller because of me. So my father is asking me to leave and he will not pay any monthly maintenance to me and my mother is asking me, again and again, to either get a job soon or commit suicide. Can I file a suit to claim maintenance from my parents under Adoptions and Family Act 1956? Also, while growing up, less money was spent on me compared to my brother because I was a girl child, from food, clothing, toys, schooling, education, purchasing bicycle/motorcycle, branded clothes for son but roadside clothes and not even a bicycle for daughter. Can I sue my parents for my poverty laden upbringing but providing excesses to my brother?

Reply Follow

3 Replies

Mayur Shrestha 18 February 2022

1. You can very well proceed to file a maintenance suit in an apt court of law under section 20(2) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 which says “The obligation of a person to maintain his or her aged or infirm parent or daughter who is unmarried extends insofar as the parent or the unmarried daughter, as the case may be, is unable to maintain himself or herself out of his or her own earnings or other property”

2. As it was observed in the case of Jasbir Kaur Sehgal v. Distt. Judge, Dehradun, (1997) 7 SCC 7; The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 requires a person to support his unmarried daughter if she is unable to support herself. When the wife has no source of income, it is the husband's responsibility to support her and her unmarried daughters, even if they live with the wife.

3. However, the above is only an obligation case upon Hindu parents to maintain their unmarried daughter is she is unable to do so, thus in this scenario they would have to prove for the father or the mother to establish that his or her case falls under the proviso of section 20(3) of Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act.

4. Furthermore, section 23 of the act states that it shall be at the discretion of the court to determine whether any and what amount of maintenance to be paid to the dependents(defined u/s 21) by considering the following points –

(a) the position and status of the parties.

(b) the reasonable wants of the claimant.

(d) the value of the claimant's property and any income derived from such property, or from the claimant's own earning or from any other source.

(e) the number of persons entitled to maintenance under this Act.

5. Additionally the amount of maintenance would be awarded considering the unmarried lady to live like that of a widower with the same degree of comfort. (Decided in Kulbhushan Kumar v. Raj Kumari, 1970).

Shruti 18 February 2022

Can I contest my parents' will favoring son that they wrote under duress from son because he threatened to not take care of them in old age 80+ and not do their funeral rituals according to Hindu tradition which means Yamdut will beat them up and take tem through longer road to god?

Mayur Shrestha 19 February 2022

Dear querist,

(1) Also you can seek protection u/s 125 of crpc where it can help you to strengthen your claim to claim maintenance from your parents as Maintenance law under section 125 of CrPC has been enacted as a measure of social justice to provide financial assistance (maintenance) to wife, children, and parents, so as to prevent them from falling into destitution.