A Delhi court has dismissed the plea of a widow seeking interim maintenance from her father-in-law in connection with an alleged domestic violence case. The court said that considering the financial circumstances of her parents-in-law, there is no law that states that he has to maintain his daughter-in-law and grandchildren, irrespective of whether he earns or not.
The court, while rejecting the plea, noted that according to the income affidavits of the complainant and her father-in-law, the woman had studied up to Class IX while her father-in-law was a matriculate pass. He was an unemployed senior citizen with his wife dependent on him.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shilpi Jain said, “Both the parties (woman and the father-in-law) are almost equally qualified and the respondent ( father-in-law) is a senior citizen having a wife who is dependent on him. On the other hand, petitioner (woman) is getting Rs 1,000 per month as widow pension. In these circumstances, when the father-in-law himself is unemployed, no law provides that he has to maintain daughter-in-law and grandchildren, irrespective of whether he earns or not.”
The court also observed that as the daughter-in-law is “almost” equally qualified, the court cannot tell the parent-in-law to “beg, borrow or steal”. “Court cannot tell the father-in-law/grandfather to beg, borrow or steal to give maintenance to the daughter-in-law, more so when she is almost equally qualified and almost equally capable of earning and already has widow pension of Rs 1,000 per month,” the court said.
The woman had sought interim maintenance from her father-in-law in an alleged domestic violence case filed by her — against her father-in-law, mother-in-law and two others — alleging that she was physically and mentally tortured by them for dowry.
The woman had claimed an interim maintenance of Rs 35,000 per month from the father-in-law.
The father-in-law and the other accused denied the allegations saying they never committed any domestic violence and that she was not entitled to any maintenance.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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