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Maintenance & alimony

Maintenance and alimony

Maintenance is the remedy people need soonest and understand least. It is not a punishment of the paying spouse and it is not a reward to the receiving one. It exists to prevent destitution and to hold living standards steady while the law works through the rest.

Maintenance and alimony — Advocate Pravesh Prasad Joshi, Dehradun

Written by Dehradun, Uttarakhand Last reviewed August 2026

The routes available

More than one door leads to maintenance, and they are not mutually exclusive:

  • Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — now Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita — a fast, secular remedy for a wife, children and parents unable to maintain themselves.
  • Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act — interim maintenance and litigation expenses while a matrimonial petition is pending.
  • Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act — permanent alimony at the time of, or after, a decree.
  • The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 — monetary relief, alongside protection and residence orders.
  • The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 — maintenance for a wife and dependants.

How the amount is assessed

There is no formula. Courts weigh the income and assets of both parties, the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage, the reasonable needs of the claimant and the children, the liabilities of the payer, and whether the claimant has independent income. The Supreme Court has laid down criteria and required both sides to file affidavits of assets and liabilities — which has made candour about income far more important than it once was.

Concealing income is a poor strategy. Courts routinely draw adverse inferences and assess a notional earning capacity where disclosure is evasive.

Parents and senior citizens

Maintenance is not only a matrimonial remedy. Parents unable to maintain themselves may claim from children under Section 125 CrPC / Section 144 BNSS. Separately, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 provides a faster route through the Maintenance Tribunal, and also allows the transfer of property made subject to a condition of care to be set aside where the condition is not honoured.

Enforcing an order

An unpaid maintenance order is enforceable. Arrears can be recovered as a fine, and the court may impose a sentence of imprisonment for wilful non-payment. Attachment of salary and property is available. Arrears should be pursued promptly — allowing them to accumulate for years weakens the claim and complicates recovery.

Weighing it up

Every remedy costs something as well as giving something. Both sides, plainly.

What it gives you

  • It is comparatively fastInterim maintenance can be ordered early and courts are expected to decide such applications expeditiously. Of everything in matrimonial litigation, this is the relief that reaches you first.
  • It is secular and simpleSection 125 CrPC / Section 144 BNSS applies regardless of religion, and the procedure is far less technical than a civil suit.
  • Disclosure is now compulsoryAffidavits of assets and liabilities from both sides have made hiding income considerably harder than it once was.
  • It is enforceable with teethArrears are recoverable, salary can be attached, and wilful non-payment can result in imprisonment.
  • It covers more than wivesChildren and — importantly — parents unable to maintain themselves can claim.

What it costs you

  • The order is not the moneyThis is the central frustration. Obtaining an order is the easy half. Getting paid every month, without a fresh application every time it stops, is the hard half.
  • Amounts often disappointAwards are calibrated to need and to proved income, not to the life you had. People expecting restoration of their standard of living are usually disappointed.
  • Cash income is hard to proveWhere a spouse is self-employed and deals in cash, the disparity between the declared income and the visible lifestyle is obvious to everyone and difficult to establish on paper.
  • It invites retaliationMaintenance applications are commonly answered with counter-applications, transfer petitions and appeals, each of which buys months.
  • Overlapping proceedings cause confusionRelief under Section 125, Section 24, the DV Act and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act can run together, and courts adjust between them. It is not five separate awards.

What it looks like in practice

The part that is rarely written down — what the days, the queues and the waiting actually feel like.

Proving what he earns

Salaried respondents are straightforward — salary slips, Form 16, bank statements, and the employer can be summoned. Where the respondent is a businessman, a contractor or a shopkeeper, the fight is entirely different. Income tax returns will show a modest figure. The car, the school fees, the property and the holidays will show something else.

Courts do look at lifestyle. Property records, vehicle registrations, credit card patterns, school fee receipts for the children and social media are all used. Where disclosure is evasive, courts assess on earning capacity — a person who is able-bodied and previously earning cannot become unemployed for the duration of the case and expect to be believed.

The affidavit of assets and liabilities is the most useful document in this area. A respondent who files a false affidavit has handed you something better than any argument.

The month-to-month grind

The pattern is familiar and demoralising: payment for two months, then a gap, then a part payment, then nothing, then a payment the week before the next hearing. Arrears accumulate quietly and the claimant tolerates it because the alternative is another application.

Do not let arrears run. Bring an execution application early. Courts respond far better to a claimant who came back after three months of default than to one who arrives after three years, because delay itself gets read as an indication that the money was not needed.

Salary attachment, where the respondent is employed, is the single most effective remedy available — it removes the monthly decision from a person who has demonstrated he will not make it.

Mistakes that recur

The same avoidable errors arrive in chamber after chamber. Most cost far more than any fee.

  1. Claiming an inflated figure with nothing to support it. It costs credibility on the parts that were provable.
  2. Not filing the affidavit of assets and liabilities properly, or filing one that is casually inaccurate.
  3. Allowing arrears to build for years before enforcing.
  4. For the respondent — quitting a job or showing a sudden collapse in income. Courts have seen it, and assess on capacity.
  5. Not asking for maintenance for the children separately from maintenance for yourself.

Common questions

How soon can maintenance be obtained?

Interim maintenance can be sought at the outset and courts are expected to decide such applications expeditiously. It is normally the first relief pressed, because it is the one that affects daily life immediately.

Can a working wife claim maintenance?

Earning does not automatically bar a claim. What matters is whether her income is sufficient to maintain the standard of living to which she is accustomed. A significant disparity in incomes can still support an order.

Can parents claim maintenance from their children?

Yes — under Section 125 CrPC / Section 144 BNSS, and through the Maintenance Tribunal under the Senior Citizens Act, which is generally the quicker route.

What if the husband says he has no income?

Bare denial rarely succeeds. Courts require affidavits of assets and liabilities and may assess maintenance on earning capacity where disclosure is not honest.

This guide sets out general information about the law as it applies in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. It is not legal advice, and it is no substitute for advice on your own facts. The law changes, and how it applies varies from case to case.

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