PERSONAL LAWS, MAINTENANCE AND MEN: A CORRELATION AND IMPACT OF UCC
AUTHOR – SALONI SANJEEV GULHANE, STUDENT AT CHRIST UNIVERSITY, BANGALORE
BEST CITATION – SALONI SANJEEV GULHANE, PERSONAL LAWS, MAINTENANCE AND MEN: A CORRELATION AND IMPACT OF UCC, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (1) OF 2025, PG. 904-911, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
Personal Laws of different communities have been a governing factor for various subject matters like adoption, inheritance and succession for years. These are derived from traditions and beliefs that have been passed down for generations. One such subject matter is maintenance. Different communities each have uncodified or codified laws regarding the grant of interim maintenance and alimony. The right to receive maintenance is granted under the secular civil code for all citizens of India as a whole under Section 125 of the Cr.P.C[1]. However, the additional provisions of maintenance under communities makes it possible for the wife to seek maintenance under an additional legally recognized provision.
With multiple provisions to claim maintenance under, the husband paying the sum under different laws would be obligated to pay and would likely be overburdened. And this would act as a form of gender injustice.
The issue of the overlapping jurisdiction has been deliberated over in many cases, one of them being the landmark case, Rajnesh vs Neha[2] which has set down various guidelines for the grant of maintenance. There is also a sense of gender bias that is seen among these laws where one such statute, The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA) allows for alimony to men, while the other personal laws limit their ambit to only women. In India, the practice of women paying for the maintenance of women has not been a prevalent practice and only in the recent few years has this been practiced as can be seen in cases like Rani Sethi vs Sunil Sethi[3]
In this paper, I will be analyzing the background of maintenance laws and why they came to be as gender specific as they present to be and what has changed in terms of today’s scenario. What will also be assessed is whether with the advent of the UCC there will be a possibility for a better maintenance law which governs maintenance without hampering gender justice.
Keywords: Maintenance, wife, husband, overlapping jurisdictions, unified procedure.
[1] Code of Criminal Procedure,1973
[2] Rajnesh v. Neha, (2021) 2 SCC 324 [Rajnesh]
[3] Rani Sethi v. Sunil Sethi 179 (2011) DLT 414