You are right Carlisle, why maintenance to wife only- if at some point of time being a member of a family is sufficient for claiming maintenance- why not maintenance to a girl friend or gay partner or servants or even pets. I am not triviliasing the issue- we have to think -why maintenance?
Every person is supposed to maintain himself. If somebody is not able to mainain himself, the government is taking the responsibility and ought to take responsibility through old age homes or nari niketan or old age pension. There must be a valid reasons for making one individual responsible to maintain other.
Merely being married must not be such a valid reason for bounty of maintenance for life time for a women. It is rediculous. Maintenance must not be granted based on status, it must be based on needs. Further a person forced to maintain other must get tax breaks- will start a new thread on tax discrimination based on genders and raise this demand for implementation in this budget.