Widowed daughter-in-law need not pay maintenance to her parents-in-law: Bombay HC

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has ruled that a daughter-in-law need not pay maintenance to the parents of her deceased husband. A single bench of Justice Kishor Sant on April 12 passed its order on a petition filed by a 38-year-old woman, Shobha Tidke, challenging an order passed by the Nyayadhikari Gram Nyayalaya (local court) at Latur city in Maharashtra directing her to pay maintenance to the parents of her deceased husband.

”By reading of section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is clear that the father-in-law and mother-in-law are not mentioned in the said section,” the HC said in its order. Shobha’s husband, who used to work with the MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation), had died, after which she started working at the state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai. Kishanrao Tidke (68) and Kantabai Tidke (60), the in-laws of Shobha Tidke, claimed they have no source of income after the death of their son and therefore sought maintenance.

The woman claimed that her husband’s parents own land and a house in their village and had also received Rs 1.88 lakh from MSRTC as compensation.

The high court in its order said there was nothing to indicate that the job secured by Shobha Tidke was on compassionate ground. ”It is clear that the deceased husband was working in MSRTC, whereas now the petitioner (Shobha) is appointed in the health department of the State Government. Thus it is clear that the appointment is not on compassionate grounds,” the court said. It added that the parents of the deceased man had received compensation amount after the death of their son and they own land and their own house. ”…this court finds that no case is made out by the respondents (parents) to claim maintenance from the petitioner,” HC said.