Whether step children are entitled to get maintenance from step parents?
the absence of any definition or explanation to the effect that the words
“legitimate or illegitimate child” would also include a stepchild, that
word will have to be given its natural meaning and if so construed, the
legitimate or illegitimate child would mean only a child which has been
given birth by a woman from whom the maintenance is being claimed. A
stepdaughter is not an illegitimate child but a daughter of one’s spouse
born through another spouse. Section 125 contemplates blood relation
which gives rise to moral and legal obligation to maintain a person.
48 I am dealing with a statute which is secular in nature and is not
controlled as such by the provisions of the Hindu Adoptions and
Maintenance Act, 1956, although it would be apposite to keep those
provisions in view while considering the petition under Section 125 of
the Code. The language used in Section 125 of the Code is plain and
unambiguous. The words “legitimate or illegitimate” as used in Section
125 must, therefore, be presumed to carry its plain literal meaning in the
absence of any evidence that it was intended to mean something else or
include a stepchild also.
49 It is not open to this Court to supply the omission by extending the
meaning of the word of the words “legitimate or illegitimate child” in the
guise of interpretation by analogy or implication only because this Court
feels that it will be in conformity with the principles of social justice and
equity.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL CRIMINAL APPLICATION (MAINTAINANCE) NO. 2666 of 2015
MANJULABEN PRAKSHBHAI SARVAIYA....Applicant(s)
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT & 1....Respondent(s)
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE J.B.PARDIWALA
Date : 08/10/2015
https://www.lawweb.in/2015/10/whether-step-childrens-are-entitled-to.html
