When we come upon the term maintenance in relation to the family structure, we only tend to think about husband giving maintenance to his wife after their divorce has taken place in order to confirm that the wife leads her life with approximately same standard of living which she used to enjoy when she was married. We overlook the other two categories of people who require same amount of support as the wife does when we talk about maintenance which are parents and children. In this research paper i have tried to analyze various elements related to maintenance of parents under hindu law which i think are in equal need of it as a wife is, as they to form an important part of society we live in. People used to consider old age as the age to rest and relax and spend the rest of their lives peacefully. This was valid because then these people had children who did’nt view looking after their parents as a difficulty and burden on them. It is this law and morality by which it is supported, that have saved our government the trouble of enforcing that complicated system of poor laws which is social necessity in other countries.

2 in india since historical times there has been a tradition, followed by nearly every community under hindu law, to treat elderly people of the family with love, care and respect. Changing times have resulted in a situation where these traditions have weakened and the term individuality has superseded it. Nowadays everyone wants to lead a life on his terms and tries to escape from the responsibilities he or she has using the alibi of individuality.

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Moreover, treating elderly people with love, care and respect is more a sign of morality than traditions. Aged mother and father, the infant children and, the chaste wife must be maintained even by doing a hundred misdeeds 3 .in today’s time children feel burdened to keep their parents with them. Some of them even go to such an extent where they leave them stranded on the roads. To enlist a few: in order to provide justice to these people, indian legal system has provided some relief by which if a situation comes where parents have not way out can use the tool of maintenance in order to meet their basic necessities for survival.

If not all the problems maintenance provides the solution for economic insecurity and income deficiency which co relates to the other two problems on general terms. In order to seek maintenance there are provisions under criminal procedure code, maintenance and welfare of senior citizens and parents act 2007 and personal laws in hindu law. I hindu adoption and maintenance act 1956 hindu law recognizes and puts the obligation of maintenance of aged parents on their sons, who are not able to maintain themselves out of their earning and property. Maintenance of aged parents was recognized as a personal legal obligation enforceable by sovereign or the state. The hindu adoption and maintenance act 1956 is the first personal law statute in india which imposes an obligation on the children to maintain their parents 5 .

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It was not only the duty of the sons to take care of their aged parents, the daughters are equally liable for it. The most important that we can infer from this is that financially unstable parents are the ones who could go for maintenance as guaranteed under this act. Under hindu adoption and maintenance act the children were bound to maintain their parents. Though this act was an important milestone it had limited scope with respect to the maintenance of parents. 6 the first obvious question related to this section would be that why a matter related to family law has a section related to it in a criminal statute. When people are abandoned from their homes there is no one to look after them whether emotionally, physically or economically. These people have to confront to the other side of the society which can be described as the breeding ground of crimes.

They are left devastated from inside and it no longer matters to them to lead a life of a responsible citizen or we can say their conscience fails to respond as it used to do before their abandoning. When they commit themselves to illegal activities they seek it as a form of revenge from the society which they think has been absolutely unfair towards them. Food, shelter and other basic necessities with legitimate means so their natural step goes towards the criminal means in order to fulfill the bare necessities for e.g. Children are the ones who are the ones more likely to indulge in illegal activities when they are abandoned as they can be easily manipulated by the criminals in order to increase the crime level and their money. Many of these children are forced into beggary and in order to fetch more money from the people they are made handicapped.

These people are affected by destitution and add to the social backwardness of the society. Destitution refers to a state in which a person has no money, friends or prospects. So, in order to deter people from abandoning people and take care of the so that their acts do not lead to increase in the illicit activities within the society, section 125 has been incorporated in the criminal procedure code. Below are the cases which were decided in the supreme court or respective high courts using crpcc section 125. These cases try to extrapolate what is not directly mentioned in the section but can be inferred to provide justice.

Case 1 can someone refuse to pay maintenance to his or her parents on the grounds that they did not fulfill their due parental obligation as and when he or she was dependent on them? in pandurang baburao dabadhe vs. Baburao baburao dabadhe 7 the court declared that from section 125 1 it was not clear that can the court provide maintenance to a parent who did not comply with their duties when the child was dependent on him or her. The court said the argument which is advanced before us stems from amoral indignation at being required to maintain a father who did not took care of the children at the time when he should have done so.

However, effect must be given to the intention of the legislature which must be found from words of section 125 1 alone and cannot ask to be relieved from the said statutory obligation on any moral considerations. 8 the court also mentioned that in this case the father who was unable to maintain himself was entitled to maintenance from his son who was financially sound. Gulabhai 9 also, one of the arguments of the respondent son against the applicant mother was that the parents had not discharged their duties towards him properly and therefore they had forfeited their right to claim maintenance from him. The court, however, ordered him to pay maintenance 10 this decision by the court may lead to difference of opinion but as far as the concern to ensure well being of the aged parents is concerned, the court rightly gave its decision in favour of the father. The argument that shall be placed to back this decision is that if court had ruled against the father then many children who did not want to support their parents would have used similar grounds in order to escape from their responsibility.

Case 2 the case analyzes whether according to section 125 1 can parents claim maintenance from daughter’s as well. Daughters in the process of escaping from their responsibilities towards their parents may argue that the section uses only word ‘he’ and not ‘he/she’. Sahib the kerala high court said that section 2 y of crpc says words and expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the penal code have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that code 12 .

Section 8 of the ipc reads: the pronoun ‘he’ and its derivatives are used of any person, whether male or female. Therefore the expression ‘his father or mother’ occurring in section 125 of the cr.p.c must be taken to have the meaning ‘her father and mother’. 13 this case is essentially important as it clears the air about the absence mentioning of daughters in the section and they too are equally responsible to maintain their parents as sons are.

Kashirao rajaram sawai the supreme court of india gave the decision that parents can claim maintenance from daughters, even married daughters who have the required means to support their parents are bound to provide maintenance to their parents. The court said an application under section 125 1 d of cr.p.c, 1973, by a father claiming maintenance from his married daughter is perfectly maintainable. The parents will be entitled to claim maintenance against their daughter provided, however, the other conditions mentioned in the section are fulfilled.