Can a Husband Claim Maintenance From His Wife in India?

Yes, a husband can claim maintenance from his wife in India, but only through one narrow door. Sections 24 and 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 are written in gender-neutral words and allow either spouse to apply. The catch is the gate. Both sections operate only inside a matrimonial proceeding that is already before the court. A husband cannot walk into a court and file a standalone maintenance case the way a wife can.

That one difference explains most of the confusion around this question. A wife has two doors. She can ask inside a divorce case, and she can also file separately, before a Magistrate or in a civil court. A husband has one door, and it opens only once a divorce, judicial separation, nullity or restitution petition is already pending.

Every row below was checked word by word against the bare Act on India Code.

Two rows in that table surprise most readers.

The first is the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure. Its Chapter X is headed “Order for maintenance of wives, children and parents”. Section 144 describes a person who neglects or refuses to maintain his wife, his child, or his father or mother. There is no clause for a husband anywhere in it. The fast criminal-court route people usually mean when they say “maintenance case” is simply not open to a husband.

The second surprise is the Special Marriage Act 1954, the secular option couples choose to marry across religions. Its alimony sections were never made gender-neutral. Section 36 speaks only of the wife having no independent income, only of an application by the wife, and only of an order against the husband. Section 37 orders that the husband shall secure to the wife a sum for her maintenance. The phrase “either the wife or the husband” appears nowhere in that Act. A couple who married under the supposedly neutral law ends up with a less neutral maintenance regime than a Hindu or Parsi couple.

The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act is the quiet exception almost nobody writes about. Its sections 39 and 40 were substituted by Act 5 of 1988, and the replacement text uses the same “either the wife or the husband” formula as the Hindu Marriage Act.

The two Hindu Marriage Act sections weigh different things, and the difference matters.

Section 24, while the case is running. The court must be satisfied that the applying spouse has no independent income sufficient for his or her support and for the necessary expenses of the proceeding. In fixing the amount, the section points the court to two figures only: the income of each spouse. Conduct is not on that list. A proviso inserted in 2001 says the application shall as far as possible be disposed of within sixty days from service of notice.

Section 25, at or after the decree. Here the court may order a gross sum, or a monthly or periodical sum, for a term not exceeding the life of the applicant. The factors are wider: the other side's own income and other property, the income and other property of the applicant, the conduct of the parties, and other circumstances of the case. Any such payment may be secured by a charge on the immovable property of the person paying.

Section 25 also has two moving parts that cut both ways. Sub-section 2 lets either party ask the court to vary, modify or rescind the order if circumstances change. Sub-section 3 lets the other party seek variation or rescission if the person receiving the money has remarried, or, where that person is the husband, if he has had sexual intercourse with a woman outside wedlock. The words “while the applicant remains unmarried” were removed from section 25 in 1976, so remarriage no longer ends the right automatically. Sub-section 3 replaced that automatic cut-off.

Take an illustration, not a real case. A husband married under the Hindu Marriage Act develops a spinal condition, stops working, and has no independent income. His wife is in a stable, well-paid job. She files a divorce petition.

Because a proceeding under the Act is now pending, section 24 is live for him. He can apply in that same case for the expenses of the litigation and a monthly sum while it runs, and the court will look at his income against hers. If a decree follows, he can apply under section 25 for permanent alimony, where the court also weighs conduct and the property on both sides, and can secure the payment against her immovable property.

Change one fact and the answer changes. If nobody has filed a matrimonial petition, he has nothing to apply in. If the couple had married under the Special Marriage Act, sections 36 and 37 would not be open to him at all.

1. Confirm which Act governs your marriage. The Hindu Marriage Act applies to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, and does not apply to Muslims, Christians, Parsis or Jews. A marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act is governed by that Act.
2. Check that a matrimonial proceeding is pending. Section 24 needs a live case. Section 25 needs the court to be passing a decree, or to have already passed one.
3. File the application in that same case, not as a fresh suit. The court hearing the main petition decides maintenance.
4. Put your finances on record honestly. Both sections turn on income and property, so bank statements, salary or pension records, medical bills and proof of unemployment do the real work.
5. Cite the sixty-day proviso on a section 24 application if the matter is drifting.
6. If an order is made and not paid, use section 28A. Every decree and order under the Act is enforced in the same way as a decree of the court in its ordinary civil jurisdiction.

These are limits written into the statute, not opinions.

• No pending case, no claim. Section 24 opens with the words “where in any proceeding under this Act”. A husband with no matrimonial litigation has no section to invoke.
• The threshold is “no independent income sufficient for his support”. That burden sits on the applicant.
• Conduct enters at section 25. Unlike section 24, permanent alimony expressly weighs the conduct of the parties.
• The order is not permanent in the ordinary sense. Sections 25(2) and 25(3) both let the other party move for variation or rescission later.
• Even the forum rules are asymmetric. Section 19 lets a petition be filed where the wife resides when she is the petitioner. There is no matching clause for a husband.
• Enforcement is weaker. Under Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita section 144, a warrant can issue and the defaulter can be sentenced to up to one month per breach. A husband's Hindu Marriage Act order is enforced as an ordinary civil decree, with a charge on immovable property as the main security.

Not under the Hindu Marriage Act. Sections 24 and 25 both require a proceeding under that Act. Section 24 needs one pending, and section 25 attaches to a decree. There is no standalone husband-maintenance petition in the Act.

No. Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 covers a wife who is unable to maintain herself, children, and a father or mother. A husband is not listed. This section replaced the old Code of Criminal Procedure provision and kept the same limits.

The Hindu Marriage Act applies to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, and to others domiciled in India who are not Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew. The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act covers Parsi marriages and is also gender-neutral on alimony. The Special Marriage Act and the Divorce Act 1869 are not.

The proviso to section 24 says the application shall, as far as possible, be disposed of within sixty days from the date of service of notice. That proviso was inserted with effect from 24 September 2001. The words “as far as possible” make it a direction to the court, not a hard deadline you can enforce on day sixty-one.

Yes. Section 25(2) allows either party to seek variation, modification or rescission if circumstances change. Section 25(3) allows the other party to move if the recipient has remarried, or, where the recipient is the husband, if he has had sexual intercourse with a woman outside wedlock.

Section 25 says any such payment may be secured, if necessary, by a charge on the immovable property of the person ordered to pay. Section 40 of the Parsi Act allows a charge on movable or immovable property.

No. The words “while the applicant remains unmarried” were omitted from section 25 with effect from 27 May 1976. Remarriage is now a ground on which the other party may apply under section 25(3), so the court decides rather than the right lapsing on its own.

Get the governing Act right first, because that single fact decides whether you have a claim at all. Then check whether a matrimonial proceeding is pending, since that is the gate for section 24. Collect income and property proof for both sides early, because both sections are decided on those figures.

If the other spouse works for a public authority, an application under the Right to Information Act can sometimes help you place official records before the court, subject to the exemptions in section 8 of that Act. RTI Wiki publishes the full RTI Act 2005 text, a library of practical guides, and a free AI RTI drafting tool. For a longer walk-through of using information law against an institution, see The RTI Playbook.

This page sets out the statutory position from the bare Acts. It is not legal advice, and a family lawyer should draft the actual application.