MAINTENANCE: RIGHT OF PARENTS

Abstract

“The aged mother and father, the chaste wife and an infant child must be maintained even by doing a hundred misdeeds.”

• Manusmriti

Abstract

As the legend goes, young Ayyappa, the Lord of Sabarimala in Kerala, went to the forest to fetch tiger’s milk to save his ailing stepmother. It was nothing but pure love and devotion that prompted him to risk his life. After all, those days there was no law making it obligatory for a child to look after his aged parents. Now a day due to high number of cases relating to the abuse of parents, various laws have been enacted to provide a safeguard to the elders and to bind their son or daughter to pay them maintenance. This research paper will deal with the various laws related to what is maintenance, who are qualified as a person to get the maintenance and also who is liable to pay the maintenance and various provisions under various laws which deals with the right of maintenance. Being the children, it is their duty to provide the maintenance to their old and infirm parents. A separate act, Maintenance of Parents and Senior Citizen had been in 2007 to specially deal with the maintenance of parents and senior citizens.