Mother-in-law and father-in-law do not have the right to receive maintenance from their widowed daughter-in-law -----Bombay High Court

The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has held in a recent judgment that a mother-in-law and father-in-law is not entitled to receive maintenance from her widowed daughter-in-law under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.                                                                       The court was hearing a case in which the village court of Jalkot in Latur district had told the widowed daughter-in-law that her mother-in-law and father-in-law were senior citizens and there is no obligation on them, so the widowed daughter-in-law is responsible for maintaining them.The village court ordered the widowed daughter-in-law to maintain her in-laws.Widowed daughter-in -law challenged the order of Gram Nyayalaya, Jalkot in the High Court.                             As per the case the husband of the widow was employed as a conductor in the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation who died. After the death of the husband the widow started working in the hospital for her survival and currently also working in a government hospital in Mumbai.                                                                            The widow's mother-in-law and father-in-law argued in the court that they are old and have no means of income.He was dependent on his son because now the son has died and he has no one except the widowed daughter-in-law.All the wealth and property in the name of his son will be transferred in the name of the daughter-in-law, she will be the heir of the wealth, so the daughter-in-law is also responsible for her maintenance.                                                                The widowed daughter-in-law opposed the arguments of her in-laws and said that her in-laws have 4 daughters who are married and live with their husbands because daughters have a share in their parents' property so all four of their daughters are responsible for the maintenance of their parents.                                       The widow further said that her mother-in-law and father-in-law have 2 acres of land in the village, they have a house of their own ownership.The widow told the court that after the death of her husband, ₹ 188000 was received by the father-in-law and mother-in-law from the State Road Transport Corporation.                               The widow said that her husband used to work in the State Road Transport Corporation and she is working in the health department, she has not got a job on compassionate grounds So she is not liable to pay maintenance to her parents-in-law.                                                                                While hearing the case, Justice Kishore Sant referred to Section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code and said that According to this section,  person who has sufficient means of maintaining himself can not deny maintenance to his wife, children and parents.                                                          The widow's mother-in-law and father-in-law are not able to maintain herself yet are not her parents according to law and the list of relations given in section 125 is exhaustive leaving no room for any other interpretation.                                               The court said that the widow was not given a compassionate job on the basis of her husband's job. The old couple also received ₹188,000 after the death of their son.                                                                                 The court also considered the facts that the couple owned land and also had their own house and concluded that no case was made out for maintenance by the widow's mother-in-law and father-in-law from the widow.Following this finding, the court set aside the order issued by the Gram Nyayalaya, Jalkot.