New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether an unmarried daughter should be entitled to maintenance even after becoming an adult.
A bench headed by Justice AK Sikri decided to ascertain the legal liability, and the extent of it in case a father is held accountable for maintenance of his unmarried daughter irrespective of her age.
The bench admitted a petition moved by a woman, citing a decision by the Supreme Court in 2002 wherein the provisions of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act was interpreted in favour of the unmarried daughters. It has issued notices to the father and others, seeking their replies on payment of maintenance.
The bench will also examine the court’s decision in 2002 when the pertinent clause in the Act was interpreted to mean that a man would be responsible to maintain his unmarried daughters.
The right of the female child, the court had then said, will continue even after she attains majority until she gets married, provided she is unable to maintain herself out of her own earnings or other property.
The occasion for the top court to adjudicate the extent of liability arose as the woman disputed a finding by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The high court had ordered the man from Haryana's Rewari to maintain his daughter but only till she gets married. The high court had affirmed the view of the family court that she was entitled to get maintenance till attaining majority and not thereafter.
According to the high court, the woman did not have a right to alimony since she is not suffering from any physical or mental abnormality or injury, in those eventualities a child, who though has attained majority but is unable to maintain itself is entitled to get maintenance.
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