MAINTENANCE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN INDIA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEGAL PROVISIONS AND JUDICIAL TRENDS

Maintenance law in India sits at the crossroads of constitutional
guarantee and socio - economic reality. Designed to shield women from financial
destitution occasioned by marital breakdown, separation, or desertion, the
statutory architecture of maintenance spans a range of secular and personal-law
instruments from the criminal-procedure mechanism now codified in Section 144
of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 20231
to the Hindu marriage and
adoption statutes,2 and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act,
2005.
3 Constitutional anchoring in Articles 14, 15, and 214 provides the normative
foundation for treating maintenance not as charitable relief, but as an enforceable
entitlement tethered to human dignity. Despite this elaborate framework, a
persistent gap between legislative intent and lived experience endures:
proceedings are slow, quantum awards inconsistent, enforcement weak, and
access to justice uneven. This article provides a critical doctrinal examination of
maintenance law in India. It interrogates the concept and historical development
of maintenance, maps the statutory landscape including the interplay between
personal and secular laws, surveys landmark judicial decisions from Shah Bano5
through Danial Latifi6
to Rajnesh v. Neha,7
and identifies structural impediments to effective implementation. Drawing on a rights-based and comparative
perspective, the article advances targeted reform proposals uniform quantum
guidelines, time-bound disposal mandates, and stronger enforcement
infrastructure aimed at converting legal entitlement into substantive economic
justice for women.