Claiming maintenance from parents

1.     You can very well proceed to file a maintenance suit in an apt court of law under section 20(2) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 which says “The obligation of a person to maintain his or her aged or infirm parent or daughter who is unmarried extends insofar as the parent or the unmarried daughter, as the case may be, is unable to maintain himself or herself out of his or her own earnings or other property”

2.     As it was observed in the case of Jasbir Kaur Sehgal v. Distt. Judge, Dehradun, (1997) 7 SCC 7; The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 requires a person to support his unmarried daughter if she is unable to support herself. When the wife has no source of income, it is the husband's responsibility to support her and her unmarried daughters, even if they live with the wife.

3.     However, the above is only an obligation case upon Hindu parents to maintain their unmarried daughter is she is unable to do so, thus in this scenario they would have to prove for the father or the mother to establish that his or her case falls under the proviso of section 20(3) of Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act.

4.     Furthermore, section 23 of the act states that it shall be at the discretion of the court to determine whether any and what amount of maintenance to be paid to the dependents(defined u/s 21) by considering the following points –

(a) the position and status of the parties.

(b) the reasonable wants of the claimant.

(c) if the claimant is living separately, whether the claimant is justified in doing so.

(d) the value of the claimant's property and any income derived from such property, or from the claimant's own earning or from any other source.

(e) the number of persons entitled to maintenance under this Act.

5.     Additionally the amount of maintenance would be awarded considering the unmarried lady to live like that of a widower with the same degree of comfort. (Decided in Kulbhushan Kumar v. Raj Kumari, 1970).

Can I contest my parents' will favoring son that they wrote under duress from son because he threatened to not take care of them in old age 80+ and not do their funeral rituals according to Hindu tradition which means Yamdut will beat them up and take tem through longer road to god?

Dear querist, 

(1) Also you can seek protection u/s 125 of crpc where it can help you to strengthen your claim to claim maintenance from your parents as Maintenance law under section 125 of CrPC has been enacted as a measure of social justice to provide financial assistance (maintenance) to wife, children, and parents, so as to prevent them from falling into destitution.