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Widow has 'pre-existing right' to maintenance: SC

In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court has held that the right to maintenance of a Hindu woman flows from the social and temporal relationship between the husband and the wife and that right in the case of a widow is a 'pre-existing right.'

''And this pre-existing right of a Hindu widow was enshrined in the Shastric Hindu law long before the passing of the Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act, 1937 and the Hindu Married Women's Right to Separate Maintenance and Residence Act, 1946. The two acts merely recognised the position as was existing under the Shastric Hindu Law and gave it a 'statutory backing','' the court observed.

The ruling was handed down by a division bench comprising Justices A S Anand and V N Khare while allowing an appeal.

The appeal arose out of a property dispute between a son, his widow mother on one hand and other family members of the deceased father on the other, who had willed his properties, including agricultural land, in their favour.

The appeal was directed against a judgment of the Madhya Pradesh high court.

UNI

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