Wife's Claim after Divorce

Divorce is quite stressful for both the partners. It may affect either or both partners, emotionally, psychologically, physically, financially and off course mentally. The Divorce law in India enables the women to get alimony, maintenance and share in the property of the divorced husband. The main reason for this is to ensure financial stability of the women after divorce. As per the law, the wife can claim share, alimony etc, however it must be noted that, whether to grant it or not depends on several factors which the family court will take in to consideration.

According to the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, the women has total right to receive maintenance from the husband until she remains single. In case the husband proves that, the wife has been involved in immoral relationship, she is not liable for any maintenance from there on.

Let us now discuss some of the factors regarding different claims:

• Maintenance – According to the Indian Divorce Act 1869, the maintenance can be awarded in case the husband is neglecting her or has deserted her. Maintenance can also be awarded in case the husband is cruel towards the wife. It should be noted that, in order to claim maintenance and application must be filed under section 125 of CRpC. The application should contain key information and the reason for seeking maintenance and based on this application, the court may grant it. It is worth mentioning that, for different religions there are different provisions for maintenance in the Indian Divorce Law.

• Property Claims – Once the couple are separated or divorced, property settlement generally becomes the “bone of contention”. Settlement of property depends on various factors, let us discuss some of them briefly:

If the property is in the name of the husband and there is a divorce with mutual consent, as per the law, the wife doesn’t have any rights on the property. The law however states that, during the entire course of divorce, the husband cannot force his wife out of the property, if the wife wills; she can stay in the same house up until the divorce judgment is pronounced officially by the court. According to the law, the wife can claim maintenance for herself and the children; however she won’t get any share in the property.

If the property in question is a joint property bearing both the names of husband and wife, in this case, the court may grant the share accordingly to the wife. In case the joint property is registered under husband’s name only, then the wife has to provide the proofs of her contribution towards the property.

Let us now discuss the case in which, the husband has deserted the wife and children without formal divorce, in this case the women and children can claim their share from the property as per the women property rights.

To conclude, it can be safely said that, if the women seeks the divorce herself, she loses all the rights on her husband’s property. It is recommended by experts that, they keep all the proofs for their contribution towards a property so that, they can be ready for these testing times. It is highly advisable that one should take help from experts in these types of cases.