The Allahabad High Court has observed that a daughter-in-law is not legally obligated to maintain her parents-in-law under statutory provisions, Live Law reported on Saturday.
A bench of Justice Madan Pal Singh made the observation while dismissing a criminal revision petition filed by an elderly couple against their daughter-in-law.
The court said that the right to claim maintenance under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita is a statutory one and is limited to the categories specified in the provision.
Section 144 empowers a magistrate to direct a person with sufficient means to provide monthly maintenance to their spouse, children or parents unable to support themselves. The provision replaced Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Singh noted that parents-in-law do not fall within the ambit of the provision.
A moral obligation, however compelling it may seem, cannot be enforced as a legal obligation in the absence of a statutory mandate, the judge added. He added that the legislature, in its wisdom, has not included parents-in-law within the ambit of the provision.
“In other words, it is not the scheme of the legislature to fasten liability of maintenance upon a daughter-in-law towards her parents-in-law under the said provision,” Live Law quoted the court as saying.
The petitioners had challenged an August 2025 order of a family court in Agra that rejected their plea for maintenance under Section 144.
They said that they were elderly, illiterate and indigent, and had been dependent on their son during his lifetime.
They argued that their daughter-in-law, a constable in the Uttar Pradesh Police with an independent income, should be legally bound to support them, especially as she had received her husband’s service and retirement benefits.
The court, however, said there was nothing on record to show that her employment had been secured on compassionate grounds. It also noted that questions of succession to the deceased son’s property do not arise in summary maintenance proceedings.
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