Archive · 21 Aug 2025
Delhi HC: Widow Can Claim Maintenance from Family Property
The Delhi High Court has made a decision about widowed daughters-in-law and their right to financial support.
If a woman's husband dies, she can ask for money (maintenance) from her father-in-law's family property.
This only applies to property the family jointly owns, not things the father-in-law owned personally.
The court explained this is allowed under a specific law about Hindu families.
It means the money comes from the family's shared assets, not the father-in-law's own savings.
Delhi High Court ruled widowed daughter-in-law entitled to maintenance from deceased father-in-law's coparcenary estate.
Maintenance claims are limited to the coparcenary property, not personal assets.
Coparcenary property refers to jointly owned ancestral property.
The ruling clarifies rights under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA).
The duty to maintain arises only from coparcenary property which forms part of the estate.
- Who
- The Delhi High Court made the ruling regarding widowed daughters-in-law.
- What
- The Delhi High Court ruled that a widowed daughter-in-law is entitled to maintenance from her deceased father-in-law's coparcenary estate.
- When
- Wednesday (the article does not specify the date)
- Where
- Delhi High Court
- Why
- To clarify the rights of widowed daughter-in-laws to maintenance under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA).
- Court
- Delhi High Court
- Legal Act
- Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA)
- Topic
- Widowed Daughter-in-law's Right to Maintenance
- Scope of Maintenance
- Coparcenary Property only