Father-in-Law Obligated to Maintain Widowed Daughter-in-Law Only If She Cannot Sustain Herself from Own Earnings or Husband’s Estate: Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court observed that a Hindu wife’s right to maintenance after the death of her husband, by her father-in-law, is limited to the extent when she is unable to maintain herself out of her own earnings or other property or, where she is unable to obtain maintenance either from the estate of her husband or her father or mother, or from her son or daughter, if any.

The Court considered an appeal filed against the order of Family Court directing Father-in-Law to pay maintenance to Daughter-in-Law and grandchildren.

A Bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Rajesh Kumar observed, “The statutory scheme of the Act is quite clear that the father-inlaw would be obliged under the law to maintain widowed daughter-in-law when all other sources of income as stated in proviso to sub-section (1) are closed and not available. Therefore, in order to get maintenance from the father-in-law, the widowed daughter-in-law is required to specifically plead and prove by leading cogent, reliable and clinching evidence that all other sources of income maintenance have stated in sub-section (1) are not available to her. In the absence of specific pleadings and evidence regarding any of the sources of earning maintenance stated in sub-section (1) either not pleaded or not proved, the statutory obligation could not be fastened on the father-in-law, irrespective of whether or not he holds any coparcenary property, out of which, daughter-in- law has not obtained any share.”

Advocate Arvind Kumar Choudhary represented the Appellants.

Case Brief

An appeal was filed against the order of the Family Court directing the Father-in-law to pay maintenance of Rs. 3000/- per month to Daughter-in-Law and Rs. 1000/- per month each of the grandchildren.

It was the case of the Daughter-in-Law that since the demise of her husband she along with her two minor children has been residing at her parent’s home and has no source of income of her own. It was also her submission before the Family Court that her husband had constructed two bed rooms, one varandah, attached staircase and toilet bathroom but her in-laws ousted her from that house and in order to grab the entire property of her husband they started creating trouble.

Being aggrieved by the order of the Family Court, the Father-in-Law and Brother-in-Law filed an appeal on various grounds including that the daughter-in-law is not entitled for maintenance from father-in-law under Section 19 and 22 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.

Court’s Analysis

The question before the Court relates to the issue of the right of a widowed daughter-in-law and her minor son and daughter to claim maintenance from the father-in-law.

The Court referred to Section 19 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 and observed that the statutory obligation on the father-in-law to maintain the daughter-in-law would arise when the conditions exhaustively enumerated in sub-section (1) of Section 19 of the Act of 1956 are fulfilled.

“The statutory scheme of the Act is quite clear that the father-inlaw would be obliged under the law to maintain widowed daughter-in-law when all other sources of income as stated in proviso to sub-section (1) are closed and not available. Therefore, in order to get maintenance from the father-in-law, the widowed daughter-in-law is required to specifically plead and prove by leading cogent, reliable and clinching evidence that all other sources of income maintenance have stated in sub-section (1) are not available to her. In the absence of specific pleadings and evidence regarding any of the sources of earning maintenance stated in sub-section (1) either not pleaded or not proved, the statutory obligation could not be fastened on the father-in-law, irrespective of whether or not he holds any coparcenary property, out of which, daughter-in- law has not obtained any share”, the Court observed.

The Court further opined that according to proviso (a) to section 19, a daughter-in-law can be disentitled to claim maintenance from her father-in-law only if she is able to obtain maintenance either from the estate of her husband or her father or mother.

“Thus. in order to disentitled Hindu widow of her right to claim maintenance from her father-in-law as provided in section 19(1) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, it must be established affirmatively that she is able as of right to obtain maintenance either from the estate of her husband or from her father or mother”, the Court held.

Accordingly, the Court dismissed the Appeal.

Cause Title: Surendra Das V. Anita Das (Neutral Citation:2025:JHHC:15002-DB)

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