Keywords: divorce, maintenance charges, Hindu Succession Act, Section 15(1)(c), heritable property
The Section 15(1)(C)[1] of the Hindu Succession Act got interpreted by the verdict of the Madras High Court. It was said that the mother can be deemed to claim the property of her deceased daughter. Annadurai v. Jaya proved to be its landmark case. The husband had filed the divorce petition before the Sub Court, Seyyur under section 13(1)(i)(b) of the Hindu Marriage Act. Eventually, the court accepted the petition and permitted the divorce on 20th October 2005. But the wife named Saraswathi favored his demand for the maintenance charges from her ex-husband. The judge dealing with such a case fixed the limit for the maintenance charge amounting to Rs. 7500 every month. But the husband failed to clear the charges and created the collective responsibility of paying the sum of Rs. 6,37,500 inclusive of the previous unsettled charges. This made the wife ultimately register for a fresh application before Judicial Magistrate No. II about the heavy due of the maintenance charges.
The wife got died before the conclusion in response to her application. Therefore, the mother of the deceased daughter came into the case and framed her demand for the transfer of Rs. 6,22,500 from the husband. The mother believed that she was acting as a guardian to her daughter who was mentally ill. Also, the mother was the legal successor.
The court in this case opined that the right to demand maintenance is the personal right of a wife. The court cited the maxim “Action personalis moritur cum persona” which stated that the personal action of the person would result in its end as far as the future maintenance is concerned.[2] According to the court, the pending maintenance charges were regarded as the property of the wife under Section 6 (dd) of the Transfer of Property Act. The property in the manner of the due charges was heritable but the incoming maintenance of the wife was not account for a heritable property. The court further speak that the proper relating to the deceased wife would firstly hand over to her husband or children as the law says. But due to the emergence of the divorce, such property undoubtedly would belong to the mother of the deceased under Section 15(1)(c) of the Hindu Succession Act.
Aniruddh Atul Garg, a student of ILSR, GLA University, Mathura, 2nd Semester, a legal intern under Legal Vidhya
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