Christian wives can get lump-sum alimony for their future life. Irrespective of other religious laws the Christian wives who were provided legal provisions under section 37 of the Indian Divorce Act can now get permanent alimony. For Hindus, there is no such provision and they cannot claim the permanent alimony as a matter of right. For Hindus, only monthly maintenance can be awarded by the court. A little relief to the Hindus is that they can fix permanent alimony in the mutual consent petition when they mutually agree to divorce and can determine the permanent alimony by themselves.
The court only granted permanent alimony to Christian wives only when they obtained a decree of dissolution of marriage or judicial separation—no remedy for permanent alimony when they obtained a decree for restitution of conjugal rights.
The court fixed the alimony amount reasonably according to the income source of the husband and curtailed not exceeding the lifetime of the wife. No yardstick is fixed to determine permanent alimony but it was left to the discretionary power of the court to fix the alimony according to the circumstances and the material records of the husband’s income and property before the Hon’ble Family court at Chennai.
Once the permanent alimony is fixed and received by the wife they cannot claim further maintenance in the future. No laws in specific have provided any provision for future maintenance when the wife is distressed after a period of 10 or 20 years. Once the permanent alimony is settled with the wife, the wife loses all future maintenance rights.
The Family court in Chennai looks at the income and the lifestyle of the husband. They also consider the lifestyle of the wife at the time of marriage. The maximum amount of alimony will be decided by considering all the sources of income and wealth of the husband. But for minimum alimony, the court will consider the living cost of the wife living in a particular area. The above legal remedy is not provided to Muslims and Hindus in their laws. When a Christian marries under the Special Marriage act also loses the right provided for permanent alimony under section 37 of the Indian Divorce Act.
Author: K.P.Satish Kumar M.L.
Advocate, Madras High Court
For free legal consultation of permanent alimony for a Christian wife, call our Divorce lawyers in Chennai @ 9840787702