Maintenance And Its Types.

Maintenance :- Maintenance in family law refers to alimony or spousal support. It is an order of a court for the support of one spouse by the other spouse. There are two ways of awarding maintenance by the Court.

1)Interim Maintenance and Maintenance Pendent lite :

From the date of presentation of the petition till the date of dismissal of the suit or passing of the decree is called as Interim Maintenance. To meet the immediate needs of the petitioner the Interim Maintenance is given. And maintenance pendent lite is for providing the litigation expenses to the claimant. The amount that is paid during the pendency of the matrimonial cause by the financially independent spouse to their counterpart and which covers the expenses of the proceedings including the other expenses of the spouse during the course of the proceedings. The claimant has no independent income of his/her own to support himself/herself is the basis of the claim. On the quantum of maintenance the act is silent and it is upon the discretion of the court to determine the quantum.

2)Permanent Maintenance :

On the other hand, the permanent maintenance that is paid by one spouse to the other after the judicial proceedings have resulted in either the dissolution of the marriage or a judicial separation. Section 25 of the Act talks about permanent maintenance. It states that how the court can order the respondent to pay the applicant for her or his maintenance a gross sum or a monthly or periodical sum by not exceeding a term of the life of the applicant unless there are changes in circumstances under which the court can change its order.

Hence the whole concept of maintenance was introduced in order to see that if there is a spouse who is not independent financially than the other spouse should help him/her as to make the living of the other person possible and independent. Providing maintenance means that the other person who is getting the maintenance should be able to live the life as he or she lived before marriage in case of divorce and in case where the two partners are not living together and they seek maintenance than the spouse getting maintenance should be able to live a life as when they lived together. Maintenance is the amount which a husband is under an obligation to make to a wife either during the subsistence of the marriage or upon separation or divorce, under certain circumstances. At this point of time I would also like to mention that according to my understanding maintenance not only includes basic necessities like food, clothing and residence but it may incorporated with the things necessary for comfort and status in which the person entitled is reasonably expected to live. So the main aim of providing maintenance is that the wife should not be left destitute on separation or divorce from her husband.