THE ICFAI UNIVESITY, DEHRADUN

FACULTY OF LAW

ASSIGNMENT NO. 4

ML

SUBMITTED BY:- SUBMITTED TO:

ADARSH MEHER. MONICA KHOTIYAL
BBA-LL.B (Hons). ML
2ND YEAR (Assistant Professor)
SECTION – B
18FLICDDN01063
BATCH – 2018- 23
 The principles of maintenance are determined by the strength of claims and affections and duties of
persons on whom such obligation has been cast. The Muslim jurists did not keep legal and moral
obligations distinct. The moral and legal duties, in case of maintenance, are connected with each other.
Such right of maintenance, apart from being a legal obligation, is a moral obligation also. Maintenance
includes all those things which are important for survival and contains suitable food, raiment and
lodging and cost of education. The term “Maintenance” also includes expenses for mental and physical
well being of a minor child in accordance to the status of the family in the society. In case of education
under maintenance there is no hard and fast rule as to what should be the standard of education.

In some cases there are conditions laid down on the duty of providing maintenance and the right of
receiving maintenance. And also in some cases the right and duty of providing and receiving
maintenance depends on the circumstances and condition of the persons bound to maintain and the
persons who are entitled to receive respectively.

The persons entitled to maintenance are:

Wife,

Children,

Grandchildren,

Parents,

Grandparents,

Son’s wife,

Step-mother, and

Other relations by blood.

Now the relations, which are liable to maintain, can be divided into two classes:

1. relations by blood who are-

ascendants or descendants; or

collaterals within the prohibited degrees; and

2. relations by affinity -

a. the husband;

b. father of the husband; and

c. step-son.

Conditions for the right to maintenance

Under Mohammedan law every person’s maintenance should be given from his own property whether
he is a minor or a major. As a general rule, the right of maintenance is available only to the necessitous
persons who are poor and cannot earn their maintenance. The exception to this general rule provides
that in certain cases the persons who are not necessitous are also entitled to maintenance. One such
example is the right of the wife even though she has the means to maintain herself. Also the parents
and grandparents are entitled to maintenance even if they are not necessitous but provided that they
are poor then only they can claim the maintenance. Maintenance of sons, till they attain puberty, and
daughters, till they are married, is also considered as an exception.

It may be noted that the wife is the only one who is entitled to maintenance even if she has got
some means of maintaining herself, and the husband is without any means. Also the children before
puberty are not entitled to maintenance if they are not poor and have got their own means of
maintaining themselves.

A Muslim husband is bound to maintain the wife as long as she is faithful to him and obeys
such orders which can be considered as reasonable in the eyes of law. But he is not bound to maintain
her if she refused herself or is otherwise disobedient. In Baillie’s Digest of Mohammedan Law, it has
been stated:[1]

“If, when called upon to remove to his house, she refuses to do so of right, that is, to obtain payment of
her dower, she is entitled to maintenance; but if she refuses to do so without rights, as when her dower
is paid, or deferred, or has been given to her husband she has no claim to maintenance.

If a woman be a nashizah or rebellious, she has no right to maintenance until she

returns to her husband’s house. By this expression is to be understood a woman who goes out from her
husband’s house(manzil) and denied herself to him, in contradiction to one who merely refuses to abide
in her husband’s apartment(beit), which is not necessary for the purpose of restraint . If, however, the
house her own property, and she forbids him from entering it, she is not entitled to maintenance unless
she had asked him to remove her to his won house, or to hire a house for her. When she ceased to be a
nashizah or rebellious, she is again entitled to maintenance.”

Also it has been observed in Ameer Ali’s Mohammedan Law[2]: “but the right of the wife to
maintenance is subject to the condition that she is not refractory or does not refuse to live with her
husband without the lawful cause.

Priority of obligations to maintain shall be in the following order:

firstly, on the husband,

secondly, on the father,

thirdly, on the mother,

fourthly, jointly on the grand-parents and grand-children,

fifthly, on the children,

finally, on the collateral relations.