The Delhi High Court on Wednesday held that a widowed daughter-in-law is entitled to claim maintenance from the coparcenary estate of her deceased father-in-law under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA). Coparcenary estate refers to the joint ownership of ancestral property within a family. A division bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar clarified that the widowed daughter-in-law’s right to claim maintenance will however remain confined to the coparcenary property and will not include personal property. The bench noted the condition is applicable even if the father-in-law owns significant self-acquired assets. “The duty to maintain arises only from the coparcenary property which would subsequently form a part of his estate after his death,” the bench asserted. Dubbing HAMA as “quintessentially a social welfare legislation,” the court noted that the act was “enacted with an intention to infuse traditional norms of a Hindu Society with principles of equity, fairness and family protection.” Since the Act was codified “to ensure that a destitute widowed daughter-in-law is not deprived of maintenance, especially in circumstances where her father-in-law has left behind an estate,” the bench reasoned that the words in Section 19(1) of the HAMA cannot be construed narrowly. “Such restrictive interpretation would fall short of the parliamentary intent behind the enactment of the statute which was to ensure the protection of those who lack other means of support,”the bench underlined Section 19(1) of the Act deals with maintenance of widowed daughter-in-laws, and states that a Hindu wife, whether married before or after the commencement of this Act, shall be entitled to claim maintenance after the death of her husband from her father-in-law. The court, in its order, has interpreted that this would also include the coparceny estate of the father-in-law. Adding that the law has to be interpreted with a “pragmatic and holistic approach” the bench also reasoned that “even prior to the codification of the HAMA, the scriptures of Hindu Law acknowledged the inherent moral responsibility of the father-in-law to provide for his widowed daughter-in-law.”
