On the death of the daughter, His mother has the right to receive the arrears of alimony -- Madras High Court

The Madras High Court, while dismissing the criminal revision petition filed by the ex-husband of the recently deceased daughter, observed that A mother has the right to receive the amount of alimony due before the death of her daughter.The court said that the arrears of maintenance was the property of the deceased daughter and being the legal heir after his death his mother is entitled to receive this property.           The petitioner had challenged the trial court's order by which a man named Annadurai had divorced his wife Saraswathi under the Hindu Marriage Act.After the divorce, his wife Saraswati had filed a petition in the lower court to get maintenance.The lower court, while disposing of the maintenance petition, directed the husband to pay Rs 7500 per month to his Ex wife for maintenance.Court ordered that maintenance is to be paid from the date of filing of the petition.For the recovery of arrears of alimony, the ex-wife filed an application in the court, claiming arrears of Rs 637500.Whether the application for recovery of amount was pending before the court that in the meanwhile the wife died.After the death of the daughter, her mother filed an application in the case seeking permission to implead her as a litigant and to recover the arrears of maintenance of the daughter.This application of the mother of the deceased daughter was accepted by the trial court and she was allowed to be a party to the further proceedings in the matter.The trial court's order impleading the mother of the deceased daughter was challenged by the petitioner in the High Court through a criminal revision petition.                                        The petitioner-husband argued in the High Court that maintenance was a personal right of the divorced wife, after her death the claimant is no longer alive, therefore no cause of action survives.When there is no cause of action, the mother of the deceased is not competent to maintain the proceedings and is not entitled to claim arrears of maintenance from the deceased daughter.          Countering the arguments of the petitioner husband, the mother of the deceased said that the arrears of alimony is the property of her daughter.According to section 15(1) C of the Hindu Succession Act, in the absence of a daughter, the mother is the heir to the property of her deceased daughter.and the arrears of alimony being the property of the deceased daughter, she is competent to claim the same.                                                      After hearing both the sides, the court held that as per section 14 of the Hindu Succession Act, the arrears of maintenance is the property of the deceased wife. Maintenance dues to be treated as both movable and immovable property.Mother is entitled to her daughter's property under section 15(1) C of the Hindu Succession Act And in the present case the arrears of maintenance till the death of the daughter is the property of the daughter therefore the trial court has passed an order making the mother a party on the death of the daughter.There is nothing wrong in the order passed by the lower court and there is no reason to interfere with the order passed by lower court .                                              With the above observations, A Bench of Justice V. Sivagnanam while dismissing the criminal revision petition filed by the petitioner observed that In so far as the arrears of maintenance are concerned, that would be in the nature of property, which is inherited But the right to future maintenance shall not be transferrable by way of inheritance as per section 6(D) of the Transfer of Property Act.