Few days back, a 54 years old lady approached Lexhodie through our Facebook page. She as been subject to domestic violence by her husband and in-laws since their marriage. She was tolerating all that, only for her specially-abled daughter who is 23. Earlier her husband used take care of all the household expenses, but after retirement he stopped that child from attending school and is not even supporting them financially. He had also filed a divorce petition. That lady doesn’t have any source of income. She had a lot of legal queries and approached us to gain knowledge on how to handle her problem.
Lexhodie’s response: We informed her that,
· According to the Hindu Marriage Act, court may order that the husband shall pay to his wife for her maintenance and support for her lifetime if it seems to be just to the Court.
· During the pendency of the divorce proceedings if the wife shows that she has no sufficient independent income for her support, she can claim maintenance pendente lite (while litigation is pending).
· As per Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, a Hindu male is bound to maintain his unmarried daughter if she is unable to maintain herself.
· According to Criminal Procedure Code, if a man refuses to maintain his wife and child (minor or major who is unable to maintain herself by reason of any physical or mental abnormality or injury), court may order him to make a monthly allowance for their maintenance. If he fails to obey the order, the court may issue a warrant for levying the amount due and may sentence such person, upon execution of the warrant, to imprisonment.
How this helped her: After listening to all the legal provisions she regained hope. Now she knows that there are legal solutions to her problem and she has become more confidence that she can overcome this situation. She expressed her gratitude and that feel of relief in her voice gave us a sense of accomplishment. We felt emotional while we assured ourselves that we are moving in the right direction to achieve our goal of creating a change in the society through legal awareness.
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