Overview
- Justice Kauser Edappagath partly allowed RPFC No. 157 of 2021, setting aside maintenance for the major daughter while upholding the wife's award.
- The court held that under Section 125(1)(c) CrPC (Section 144 BNSS), a daughter over 18 can claim maintenance only if she cannot support herself due to physical or mental abnormality or injury.
- The bench noted that, unlike HAMA and Muslim personal law, Christian personal law contains no parallel obligation requiring a father to maintain an unmarried adult daughter.
- The Family Court's direction to pay Rs 20,000 per month to the wife and Rs 30,000 as consolidated educational expenses was affirmed as reasonable given the husband's means.
- The court found the wife's separate residence justified by care for an ailing son studying in Mumbai and reiterated that a wife's employment does not by itself defeat a maintenance claim.