In short. Maintenance under Section 144 BNSS (old Section 125 CrPC) is a monthly allowance a family court orders a person with sufficient means to pay a wife, child or parent he has neglected or refused to support. It is for anyone left without money by a husband, father or adult son or daughter. Interim maintenance is meant to be decided within 60 days of notice; the final order in a Delhi family court usually takes one to three years. Next step: file in the right district with a full income affidavit and proof of your expenses.
Is this your situation?
- Your husband has stopped sending money for the house and the children, and you have little or no income of your own.
- You are living with your parents in Delhi after leaving the matrimonial home, and you want to know how much you can claim.
- You have been served with a Section 144 petition and the amount asked for is far more than you earn.
- You are an elderly parent and your son or daughter, who earns well, has stopped supporting you.
- You are working, but your salary is a fraction of your husband's, and you are not sure you can still claim.
- There is a maintenance order in your favour but payments have stopped and arrears are piling up.
- Your spouse lives abroad, or you do, and you want to know which court can hear the case.
Key points
- It is a quick, summary remedy. Section 144 BNSS gives a wife, child or parent a monthly allowance without waiting for a divorce or a civil suit, and the family court can order interim maintenance while the case runs.
- The amount is not a fixed percentage. The court weighs both incomes, the claimant's reasonable needs, the standard of living during the marriage, other dependants and liabilities, following Rajnesh v. Neha (2020).
- Both sides must file an affidavit of assets and income. Hiding income is the fastest way to lose credibility.
- A wife is barred only in three situations. Living in adultery, refusing without sufficient reason to live with the husband, or living apart by mutual consent; a working wife is not automatically barred.
- Arrears must be chased in time. A recovery application for any month's amount should be filed within one year of the date it fell due, or that month may be lost to warrant proceedings.
- The order can be revised or altered. A wrong order goes to the High Court in revision; a change in circumstances goes back to the family court under Section 146 BNSS.
What maintenance under Section 144 BNSS is meant to do
Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 replaced Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure from 1 July 2024, with almost identical wording. The purpose has not changed: to stop a wife, child or parent from being left without food, shelter and basic dignity by someone who can afford to support them. The Supreme Court has said many times, including in Chaturbhuj v. Sita Bai (2008), that the provision is a measure of social justice, not a punishment for the person who pays.
That purpose shapes how judges read it. The claim is decided quickly and on affidavits, documents and limited evidence. The family court does not decide who was at fault for the breakdown of the marriage, except where fault is relevant to one of the bars in Section 144(4). A wife does not have to prove cruelty to get maintenance; she has to show that her husband has sufficient means and has neglected or refused to maintain her, and that she cannot maintain herself.
Cases filed before 1 July 2024 under Section 125 CrPC continue under the old law because of the savings clause in Section 531 BNSS. Most of the case law on 125 CrPC maintenance, built up over five decades, applies equally to Section 144. It is often chosen over the Hindu Marriage Act or the Domestic Violence Act because it is secular, open to women of every religion, and designed to be fast.
The sections that decide a maintenance case
Section 144, BNSS (old Section 125 CrPC)
Section 144(1) lets the court order a person with sufficient means who neglects or refuses to maintain his wife, his minor child (legitimate or not, married or not), his adult child who cannot maintain itself because of a physical or mental abnormality or injury, or his father or mother, to pay a monthly allowance. Its provisos allow interim maintenance and the expenses of the case, and say that an application for interim maintenance should be decided within 60 days of service of notice. The Explanation includes in 'wife' a woman who has been divorced or has obtained a divorce and has not remarried.
Section 144(2) makes the allowance payable from the date of the order or, if the court so orders, from the date of the application. Section 144(3) deals with recovery of arrears, Section 144(4) sets out the three bars against a wife, and Section 144(5) lets the order be cancelled if a bar is proved later.
Section 145, BNSS (old Section 126 CrPC)
This decides where the case can be filed: the district where the respondent is, where he or his wife resides, where he last resided with his wife (or with the mother of an illegitimate child), or where his father or mother resides. The last ground is new in the BNSS. It also lets the court proceed ex parte where the respondent wilfully avoids service, with a three-month window to set aside an ex parte order for good cause.
Sections 146 and 147, BNSS (old Sections 127 and 128 CrPC)
Section 146 lets either side ask the court to alter the allowance on a change in circumstances, and deals with the effect of a later civil court decision or divorce settlement. Section 147 says a copy of the order is given free to the person in whose favour it is made, and the order can be enforced by any magistrate in the place where the respondent is.
Who can claim maintenance, and from whom
A wife can claim from her husband. That includes a divorced wife who has not remarried, which means a woman divorced by mutual consent can still file under Section 144 unless she gave up the claim in a settlement that a court accepted. The Supreme Court held in Mohd. Abdul Samad v. State of Telangana (2024) that a divorced Muslim woman can also claim under Section 125 CrPC, because the provision applies to all women regardless of personal law.
A second wife whose marriage is void because the husband's first marriage was subsisting is generally not a 'wife' for this purpose (Yamunabai Anantrao Adhav v. Anantrao Shivram Adhav, 1988). Courts have softened this where the husband concealed his first marriage (Badshah v. Urmila Badshah Godse, 2014) and where long cohabitation raises a presumption of marriage.
Children can claim from their father until they turn 18, whether or not they were born in wedlock, and a married minor daughter can claim from her father if her husband cannot support her. An adult child can claim under Section 144 only where a physical or mental abnormality or injury prevents self-support. An adult unmarried Hindu daughter can instead claim under Section 20(3) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, as the Supreme Court explained in Abhilasha v. Prakash (2020).
Parents can claim from a son or a daughter; the Supreme Court settled in Vijaya Manohar Arbat v. Kashirao Rajaram Sawai (1987) that a married daughter with means is also liable. The parent must show inability to maintain himself or herself. Parents also have a separate route under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 before the Maintenance Tribunal headed by the SDM.
When a wife cannot get maintenance: the three bars in Section 144(4)
The first bar is that the wife is living in adultery. A single lapse in the past is not enough; courts look for a continuing adulterous relationship at or around the time of the claim, and the husband must prove it with evidence, not suspicion. Allegations of this kind made without proof tend to harden the court against the person making them.
The second bar is that the wife refuses, without sufficient reason, to live with her husband. This is where most contests happen. The proviso to Section 144(3) says that if the husband has married again or keeps a mistress, her refusal is treated as just ground. Cruelty, dowry demands, a hostile in-law household and a husband's refusal to provide a separate residence have all been accepted as sufficient reason on facts. An offer to take her back made for the first time after the petition is filed is often treated as a tactic.
The third bar is that the couple are living apart by mutual consent. This applies to an arrangement both agreed to, usually in writing, while the marriage subsists. A divorce by mutual consent is different, because a divorced wife is expressly covered. Where the settlement in the divorce included a lump sum in full and final settlement of all maintenance claims, the court will usually hold her to it.
Outside these three bars, the question is need and means. A wife does not lose her claim because she holds a degree or once had a job. The Supreme Court said in Sunita Kachwaha v. Anil Kachwaha (2014) that a wife's ability to earn does not by itself defeat her claim, though actual earnings are counted. A wife who is earning a reasonable salary and can keep up the standard she had in the marriage will usually get little or nothing for herself, but the children's claim stands on its own.
How the court works out the amount
There is no formula in the statute. The family court fixes what it considers reasonable on the evidence. In Rajnesh v. Neha (2020) the Supreme Court listed the factors: the status of the parties, the reasonable needs of the wife and dependent children, the wife's qualifications and employment, any independent income or assets she has, the standard of living she enjoyed in the matrimonial home, any career she gave up for the family, reasonable litigation costs for a non-working wife, and the husband's income, liabilities and other dependants such as aged parents.
Many Delhi judges use a rough method from the Delhi High Court's decision in Annurita Vohra v. Sandeep Vohra (2004), sometimes called the family resource cake: the net family income is divided into shares, with two shares for the earning spouse and one share for each dependant. It is a starting point, not a rule, and it is adjusted for actual expenses such as rent and school fees. The Supreme Court in Kalyan Dey Chowdhury v. Rita Dey Chowdhury (2017) treated 25 per cent of the husband's net salary as a fair figure for a wife in that case, and lawyers often quote it, though it was not laid down as a fixed ceiling or floor.
Net income is what matters, not gross. Statutory deductions such as income tax and provident fund come off. A loan for a flat the husband lives in is not usually allowed to shrink the figure, while an EMI on a house where the wife and child live may be counted in his favour. A bare claim that parents depend on him, without documents, carries little weight.
The court also asks what the wife and children need to live at roughly the level they lived before. A monthly expense list backed by school fee receipts, rent agreement and medical bills persuades far more than a lump figure.
Finding the real income: affidavits, bank statements and lifestyle
Since Rajnesh v. Neha, both parties in every maintenance case must file an affidavit of disclosure of assets and liabilities in the format annexed to that judgment. It asks for income from every source, bank accounts, property, vehicles, investments, loans, expenses and the details of dependants. A false statement can lead to perjury proceedings and, more practically, to the court disbelieving everything else in the affidavit. The detail of what goes into that affidavit is explained in our guide on interim maintenance and how fast you can get it.
Salaried people are the easiest to assess: salary slips, Form 16 and income tax returns usually settle the figure, with perquisites such as housing and bonus added. Self-employed people are harder. Their returns often show modest income while their bank accounts, cars and children's school fees tell a different story. A husband who declares Rs 25,000 a month but runs a showroom in Karol Bagh and drives a new SUV will be assessed on what he evidently earns.
The court can summon records from banks and employers, and can direct the production of income tax returns. A wife who suspects hidden income should ask for this early, naming the bank or employer specifically, rather than complaining in general terms at final arguments. When Advocate B.K. Singh prepares a maintenance claim against a self-employed husband, he builds a one-page table of every visible expense from the marriage years (rent, school fees, EMIs, vehicle, travel) and shows the court that these could not have been paid on the income declared.
How long each stage takes, and what it costs
| Stage | Typical time in Delhi | Court fee and costs (general) |
|---|---|---|
| Filing the Section 144 petition with interim application and affidavit | Same day to one week once papers are ready | Nominal court fee stamp; check the current figure at the filing counter |
| Service of notice on the respondent | Two weeks to three months (longer if abroad) | Process fee; courier or email service as the court directs |
| Mediation or counselling referral | One to three months | No fee at the court mediation centre |
| Interim maintenance order | Law says 60 days from notice; in practice two to nine months | No separate court fee |
| Evidence (affidavits and cross-examination) | Six months to two years | Costs of certified copies and summoned records |
| Final order on maintenance | One to three years from filing | None beyond certified copies |
| Recovery of arrears under Section 144(3) | Two months to a year, depending on assets and attendance | Nominal fee on each recovery application |
| Revision in the Delhi High Court | Filed within 90 days; decided in six months to two years | Nominal court fee; costs of paper book and certified copies |
How a Section 144 case runs in a Delhi family court
The sequence below is the usual one in the family courts at the Delhi district court complexes. Individual judges vary in how quickly each step moves.
Choose the right district
Decide where to file under Section 145 BNSS: where you live, where the respondent lives, where you last lived together, or where his parents live. For most wives who have moved back to their parents, the family court for their own district is the practical choice.
Prepare the petition and affidavit
The petition states the marriage, the children, the neglect or refusal, your lack of income and his means. File the Rajnesh v. Neha affidavit of assets and liabilities with it, and an application for interim maintenance and litigation expenses.
Serve notice
The court issues notice to the respondent. If he avoids service, ask the court to allow substituted service, email or WhatsApp service, and record that he is wilfully avoiding it, because Section 145 then allows the court to proceed ex parte.
Attend mediation if referred
Delhi family courts often refer the couple to mediation. Go with a realistic figure. A mediated settlement can cover maintenance, streedhan, custody and the pending cases together.
Argue interim maintenance
Once both affidavits are on record, the court hears the interim application. It decides on the papers, so the strength of your documents decides the result at this stage.
Lead evidence
Each side files an evidence affidavit and is cross-examined. Keep it documentary, and summon bank or employer records if income is disputed.
Final arguments and order
The court fixes the final monthly amount, decides from which date it runs (usually the date of the application, following Rajnesh v. Neha) and adjusts any interim amount already paid.
Enforce or challenge
If payment stops, file a recovery application under Section 144(3). If the order is legally wrong, a revision lies to the High Court within 90 days; if circumstances change, apply under Section 146.
Documents to collect before filing or replying
If you are claiming
- Marriage certificate, wedding photographs or invitation card
- Birth certificates of the children and school fee receipts
- Your own income proof, or a statement that you have none
- A monthly expense sheet with rent, utilities, medical and school bills
- Anything showing the husband's income: his salary slips, ITRs, business cards, photographs of his shop or car, property papers
- Messages, emails or complaints showing you were sent out or harassed, if refusal to live with him will be argued
- Copies of any order already made in a DV, HMA or other maintenance case
If you are asked to pay
- Salary slips for the last 12 months, Form 16 and ITRs for three years
- Bank statements for all accounts for at least one year
- Loan and EMI statements, with what each loan was for
- Proof of dependants: parents' medical records, school fees of other children
- Proof of payments already made to the wife or children
- Any document showing the wife's income or employment
- Any written offer you made to resume cohabitation, and its date
A made-up example: a schoolteacher in Janakpuri and her husband's shop
Here's a made-up example. Meera, 34, teaches part-time at a private school in Janakpuri and earns about Rs 14,000 a month. She left the matrimonial home in Rohini with her seven-year-old son after repeated quarrels and now lives with her parents. Her husband, Rajat, runs an electronics shop in Nehru Place. His income tax return shows Rs 4.8 lakh a year.
Meera files under Section 144 BNSS in the family court at Tis Hazari, which covers her parents' area. Her affidavit lists her salary, her son's school fees of Rs 6,500 a month, tuition and medical costs, and her share of household expenses. She attaches photographs of Rajat's shop, his car loan statement showing an EMI of Rs 18,000, and the school fee receipts he used to pay.
Rajat's affidavit declares Rs 40,000 a month and claims his widowed mother depends on him. The court notes that his EMI and the old school fees alone exceed half his declared income, and that his mother draws a family pension. It assesses his real income at around Rs 85,000 a month on the evidence. It grants interim maintenance of Rs 12,000 for the son and Rs 8,000 for Meera, payable from the date of the petition, taking her own salary into account.
Meera's claim for rent is refused because she lives with her parents, and Rajat's argument that a working wife gets nothing fails because her income is far below the standard of the marriage. The figures are invented to show the reasoning, not to predict any real case.
If you are the one asked to pay
File your affidavit honestly and on time. Delhi family courts sometimes decide interim maintenance on the claimant's figures alone where the respondent keeps seeking time.
Do not plead unemployment you created. In Anju Garg v. Deepak Kumar Garg (2022) the Supreme Court said an able-bodied husband is bound to earn, even by physical labour, to maintain his wife and children. Resigning from a job after the separation, transferring a business to a brother, or showing salary through a relative's company usually backfires, because the court assesses earning capacity, not only declared income.
Raise the Section 144(4) bars only where you have evidence. A genuine offer to take the wife back, made early and in good faith, can matter; one made after the petition, with conditions such as withdrawing the FIR, rarely does. If you already pay maintenance in another case, attach that order.
Keep paying what the court orders while you challenge it. A revision filed while arrears are mounting starts on the back foot, and the High Court often asks for the arrears to be deposited before hearing it. Where your income has genuinely fallen, the remedy is Section 146 in the same court, explained in our guide on whether maintenance can be reduced if your income falls.
Claims in more than one court: Section 144, HMA and the DV Act
It is common in Delhi for a wife to have a Section 144 petition, a Domestic Violence Act application and a divorce case with a Section 24 HMA application running at the same time, often in different court complexes. The law allows all of them; Section 144 is not displaced by the others. What the law does not allow is double recovery for the same need.
Rajnesh v. Neha directed that a claimant disclose any earlier maintenance order, and that the later court take it into account, either by adjusting its figure or by setting off one award against the other. A husband who already pays under a DV order should file it at the first hearing.
The choice of forum matters for the remedy against a wrong order. A Section 144 order of a family court goes to the High Court only in revision. A DV Act monetary order goes first in appeal to the Sessions Court under Section 29, as explained in our guide on how to challenge a Domestic Violence Act order. An HMA order goes in appeal to a Division Bench under Section 19 of the Family Courts Act, covered on our page on appeals against family court orders.
When Advocate B.K. Singh is asked which route to choose, his practical answer usually depends on what else is pending: if a divorce is already running in a family court, the Section 24 application there may be faster than opening a new Section 144 case, while a wife who also needs a residence or protection order is better served by the DV Act. The point is to avoid three proceedings that repeat each other and three sets of affidavits that can be compared for inconsistencies.
Which court hears a Section 144 case, and when the Delhi High Court comes in
In Delhi, Section 144 petitions are heard by the family courts, which exercise the magistrate's powers under this chapter by virtue of Section 7(2) of the Family Courts Act 1984. Delhi's family courts sit in the district court complexes at Tis Hazari, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Patiala House, among others; our page on Delhi family courts explains which area goes where. You file in the district chosen under Section 145.
A Section 144 order of a family court cannot be appealed. The remedy is a criminal revision in the High Court under Section 19(4) of the Family Courts Act, read with Sections 438 to 442 BNSS (old Sections 397 to 401 CrPC), generally within 90 days. A single judge hears it. The High Court checks legality and perversity; it does not rehear the evidence or substitute its own figure because it would have fixed a different one. Our page on maintenance revision in the Delhi High Court covers that remedy in detail.
If the family court that passed the order is in Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida or Ghaziabad, the revision lies to the Punjab and Haryana High Court or the Allahabad High Court, not Delhi. This is a private law firm website; case status and cause lists are on the Delhi High Court's own website.
When the maintenance order is not paid
Under Section 144(3) the family court can issue a warrant to recover the unpaid amount in the way fines are recovered, which means attachment and sale of movable and immovable property, and can sentence the defaulter to imprisonment of up to one month for each month's default, or until payment if earlier. The Supreme Court held in Kuldip Kaur v. Surinder Singh (1989) that going to jail does not wipe out the arrears; it is a means of compelling payment, not a substitute for it.
The first proviso to Section 144(3) says no warrant shall issue unless the application is made within one year from the date the amount became due. This catches people out. A wife who waits three years and then files for all the arrears may find the older months beyond the warrant procedure. File recovery applications at regular intervals, or at least once a year, listing each unpaid month.
Rajnesh v. Neha also confirmed that maintenance orders can be enforced like money decrees. Delhi family courts commonly direct an employer to deduct the amount from salary and pay it directly, which is the most reliable method against a salaried respondent; against a self-employed one, attachment of property and bank accounts takes longer.
Mistakes that cost people money in Section 144 cases
- Filing a vague expense list. A claim for 'Rs 50,000 a month for household expenses' without bills is cut down. Itemise and attach receipts.
- Hiding income in the affidavit. Either side caught concealing an account, a rental income or a job loses far more than the amount hidden.
- Letting arrears pile up for years. The one-year limit for recovery warrants in Section 144(3) means old months can be lost to that procedure.
- Ignoring the other cases. Inconsistent statements about income or the date of separation in the DV case, the divorce and the Section 144 case are used against the party who made them.
NRIs and spouses living abroad
A husband working in Dubai, London or Toronto can be ordered to pay maintenance by a Delhi family court if the case is properly filed under Section 145, for example where the wife lives in Delhi. His income is assessed on his foreign salary, with allowance for the cost of living where he works.
He can defend through a lawyer in Delhi and attend by video conference where the court allows it. Ignoring the notice is a poor choice: the court can proceed ex parte, and an order with mounting arrears can later meet him at the airport.
For a wife whose husband is abroad, the practical question is recovery. Assets, salary or jointly held property in India can be attached; where everything is abroad, recovery depends on that country's law, and the courts can require a defaulting husband to deposit arrears before he next leaves India. Our page on NRI matrimonial disputes discusses cross-border recovery.
What to do this week
If you are claiming, write down your actual monthly expenses, collect the bills, and gather everything that shows the respondent's income and lifestyle. Decide which district you will file in under Section 145 BNSS, and check whether a DV, HMA or other case is already pending.
If you have been served, start on your affidavit of assets now and gather a year of bank statements and salary slips. Do not move money between accounts or resign from your job; both will be noticed.
If you already have an order, count 90 days from its date if you want a revision, and count back one year from today to see which unpaid months are still within the recovery window. Our page on challenging a maintenance order in the Delhi High Court explains the next step after a final order.
For advice on your own papers, or to keep up with changes in maintenance law, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
Is Section 144 BNSS the same as Section 125 CrPC?
Yes, in substance. Section 144 of the BNSS replaced Section 125 CrPC from 1 July 2024 with nearly the same wording, and the old case law still applies. Cases filed before that date continue under Section 125.
Can a wife who earns a salary get maintenance under Section 144?
She can, if her income is not enough to keep her at a standard reasonably close to the one she had in the marriage. The court counts her salary and compares both incomes. If she earns about as much as the husband, she may get little for herself, but the children's claim is separate.
Is there a maximum limit on maintenance under Section 144?
No. The old ceiling of Rs 500 a month was removed from Section 125 CrPC in 2001, and Section 144 BNSS has no cap. The court fixes whatever amount is reasonable on the parties' means and needs.
From which date is maintenance paid?
The court can order it from the date of the order or the date of the application. After Rajnesh v. Neha (2020), courts usually award it from the date of the application, so delay in deciding the case does not cost the claimant.
Can parents claim maintenance from a married daughter?
Yes. The Supreme Court held that a daughter with sufficient means, married or not, is liable to maintain parents who cannot maintain themselves. Parents can also use the Senior Citizens Act before the Maintenance Tribunal.
What happens if the husband does not pay maintenance?
The claimant files a recovery application under Section 144(3). The court can attach property and salary and can send the defaulter to jail for up to one month for each month's default. Jail does not cancel the arrears.
Can a husband claim maintenance from his wife under Section 144?
No. Section 144 speaks only of a wife's claim against her husband. A husband can claim maintenance or alimony from his wife under Sections 24 and 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act if he is a Hindu and cannot support himself.
Do I need to go to court every date in a maintenance case?
Not always. A lawyer can appear on most procedural dates, and Delhi family courts often allow video appearance for parties who live far away. You will usually need to be present for mediation, cross-examination and sometimes the interim hearing.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, Delhi district courts and tribunals. This guide was written and reviewed by his team.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.
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