Maintenance (Order for Maintenance of Wives, Children and Parents Provision u/s 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973)
| Updated at | March 2010 |
Order for Maintenance of Wives, Children and Parents Provision u/s 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973
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If any person having sufficient means neglects or refuses to maintainhis -
(a)Wife (who is not remarried) unable to maintain herself;
(b)Legitimate or illegitimate children who are minor and unableto maintain themselves;
(c) Legitimate or illegitimate children who are major but physically or mentally disabled, abnormal and unable to maintain themselves;
(d) Parents (father or mother) unable to maintain themselves, the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, or Judge, Family Court, as the case may be, shall order such person to pay maintenance.
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Allowance payable from the date of order or application.
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Amount of Allowance: Rs............-p.m., but Rs...............-p.m. for wivesonly.
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Jurisdiction: Judicial Magistrate, First Class, or Judge, Family Court, wherever established.
(a)Where the husband resides, or
(b)Where the wife resides, or
(c)Where they last resided together, or
(d)Where the applicant resides, or
(e)Where the opponent resides.
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Failure to comply with the order of maintenance, the opponent is liable to be sentenced. (One month's allowance = One month's imprisonment).
(a) If the wife refuses to live with her husband without justifiable grounds she is not entitled to claim maintenance,
(b) If the wife lives in adultery, she is not entitled to claim or receive maintenance. Adultery means it should be the adulterous conduct, and not a single or occasional lapse from virtue.
(c) If the husband and wife live separately by mutual consent, sheis not entitled.
(d) If the husband has contracted marriage with another woman or kept a mistress, it is a just ground for the wife to refuse to live with her husband.
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Evidence is to be recorded and proceedings conducted in the presence of the opponent.
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It is a summons case.
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To refuse = Failure to maintain; to neglect = Default or omission tomaintain. Refusal or neglect may be implied from the conduct of theopponent.
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Maintenance means to provide for appropriate food, clothing and lodging (but does not include luxury or even medicine). To maintain means to keep in certain conditions. Maintenance is not payable in any other form or kind, but it has to be paid by way of money, and money is honey of humanity.
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A mistress is not, even though her children are, entitled to claim maintenance.
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The object of Section 125: It is a summary remedy to save the dependants from destination and...
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