Recently, the Delhi High Court ruled that a divorced daughter can’t claim maintenance from her mother or brother under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA).
A Two-Judge division bench comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Sharma observed that though there are 9 categories of dependents under Section 21 of the HAMA, a divorced daughter doesn’t come in any of those mentioned categories.
In the order, the Court added, “An unmarried or widowed daughter is recognized to have a claim in the estate of the deceased, but a “divorced daughter” does not feature in the category of dependents entitled to maintenance.“
Further, the Court noted that a divorced woman can claim maintenance from her husband even after the divorce. In the present case, the appellant woman claimed that she couldn’t trace her husband.
On this, the Court responded by pointing out that it still could not order her mother or brother to pay her maintenance.
The Court further said, “However difficult situation as it may be, but under the HAMA as she is not a “dependent” as defined under the Act and thus not entitled to claim maintenance from her mother and brother.“
The Court observed this while hearing a woman’s plea challenging a trial court’s rejection of her petition under Section 22 (dealing with maintenance of dependents) of the HAMA.
The woman had been married to a man in 1995 who later deserted her and went to the United States of America. Later, she was granted an ex parte divorce in 2001.
She told the High Court that she was receiving ₹45,000 per month as maintenance by her maternal family till November 2014, on an assurance that she would not claim share in property bequeathed by her father to her.
The payments stopped after 2014, and the woman said that she was having a troubling time due to an extreme shortage of money.
The Court was told that the woman’s father had bequeathed nine acres of land to her and her sister. But they sold the land in 2001 and shared the amount received from selling the land.
The Court, further found that the woman’s brother and mother had earlier given her a sum of Rs. 45,000 per month to help her.
On observing that the mother and brother had no statutory obligation to provide her maintenance, the High Court proceeded to dismiss the appeal of the woman. The Court opined that the family court had rightly held that the woman couldn’t have the right to claim any maintenance under HAMA.
The appellant-woman appeared in person. Advocates Kapil Arora, Prashanti Bhatt, and Manjula Baxla appeared for the respondents.
News Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/delhi-high-court-divorced-daughter-hindu-adoption-and-maintenance-act
