Maintenance Order Passed but Payment Not Received: Execution Guide

Who this guide is for

This guide is for anyone in India who has a maintenance order in their favour and is not being paid. That includes:

• A spouse who obtained interim or final maintenance during or after a matrimonial case and is now facing non-payment.
• A parent who received a child-support or maintenance order and finds the monthly amount has stopped or was never paid.
• A senior citizen who obtained a maintenance order against children or relatives and is not receiving it.
• Anyone holding a maintenance order who has received only part-payment and wants to recover the shortfall.

Maintenance can be ordered under different laws in India — for example under criminal procedure provisions, under personal or matrimonial laws, under the domestic violence law, or under the law protecting parents and senior citizens. The recovery route is broadly similar, but the exact procedure, the forum and the coercive powers can vary by the law under which your order was passed and by your state. This guide gives the common steps; confirm the specifics for your order with a lawyer or the court.

If your wider matrimonial paperwork is also stuck, see the companion guide on getting a delayed certified copy of a divorce decree from the family court.

What you can do this weekend

Friday evening

Find your copy of the maintenance order and read it carefully. Note four things: the case number, the date the order was passed, the exact monthly amount ordered, and the date from which payment was to begin. These four details drive everything that follows.

Check whether you have a certified copy. A plain photocopy is fine for your own reference, but the executing court will want a certified copy. If you do not have one, plan to apply for it at the court that passed the order — note their working hours and the copying-section counter.

If you can access the case online, look it up on the eCourts services portal using the case number. Confirm the order is recorded and check whether any appeal, revision or stay has been filed by the other side.

Saturday

Build your arrears table. In a simple sheet, make a row for every month since payment was due. For each month write: the amount ordered, the amount actually received, and the shortfall. Total the shortfall column — that total is the figure your execution petition will claim.

Pull your bank statement covering the same period. Highlight the months where no maintenance was credited, or where only part was credited. This statement is your strongest proof of non-payment, because it is a neutral record. If payments were meant to be by cash or cheque, gather whatever receipts or counterfoils exist.

List what you know about the other party's income and assets: employer name and office, bank, any property, vehicle, or business. You do not need full proof yet — even partial information helps the court direct recovery. If they are a government or public-sector employee, note the department, because that record can sometimes be confirmed through an RTI.

Sunday

Draft a short written demand referring to the order and the arrears (use the template in this guide as a starting point). A demand notice is not always legally required before execution, but it is useful evidence that you asked for payment and were refused.

Organise everything into one file: certified order (or the application receipt for it), arrears table, bank statement, demand notice, and your notes on the other party's income. Number the documents so they are easy to refer to in the petition.

Contact a family-law advocate or your nearest District Legal Services Authority for free or low-cost legal aid. Maintenance holders are often eligible for free legal aid. Even a short consultation before Monday will tell you the correct executing court and the right type of petition for your specific order.

Documents and evidence checklist

Step-by-step action plan

Step 1 — Get a certified copy of the order

Apply at the copying section of the court that passed the maintenance order for a certified copy. Carry the case number and order date. There is usually a small prescribed copying fee that varies by court and state. A certified copy is the foundation document — the executing court will not act on a plain photocopy. While you are there, also ask whether the order has been formally drawn up and signed, because execution proceeds on the final order.

Step 2 — Build a clear arrears statement

Prepare a month-by-month arrears table. For each period, show the amount ordered, the amount received, and the shortfall. Total the shortfall. Keep it accurate — if you have received occasional part-payments, record them honestly, because an inflated claim can be challenged and weakens your case. Attach the bank statement that supports each unpaid month. This combination of the certified order plus a clean arrears table is what convinces a court to act quickly.

Step 3 — Send a written demand

Send the other party a short written demand that refers to the order, states the arrears, and asks for payment within a reasonable period. You can do this in your own name or through a lawyer. Send it by a method that gives proof of delivery, such as speed post with acknowledgement or a courier with tracking. Keep the receipt. A demand is not always a legal precondition for execution, but it removes any argument that the other side did not know the dues were outstanding.

Step 4 — File the execution petition in the correct court

File an execution or enforcement petition. The correct forum depends on the law under which your maintenance order was passed — it may be the same court that passed the order, the family court, the magistrate's court, or the appropriate executing court for your matter. Attach the certified order, the arrears table, the bank statement, and the demand notice. The court will register the petition and issue notice to the defaulter to appear and respond. If you are unsure which court to approach, this is the single most useful question to ask a lawyer or the court's filing counter.

Step 5 — Ask the court for recovery directions

Once the arrears are before the court, ask for concrete recovery measures. Depending on the governing law and the facts, the court can:

• Attach a bank account: freeze and recover from the defaulter's account if you can identify the bank.
• Attach or sell property: attach movable or immovable assets to satisfy the dues.
• Direct salary deduction: order a government, public-sector or private employer to deduct the maintenance from salary and remit it.
• Summon the defaulter to disclose assets: require them to state income and assets on oath where you do not have details.

Give the court whatever income and asset information you have. The more specific you are, the faster recovery can be directed.

Step 6 — Pursue coercive steps for wilful refusal

If the defaulter clearly has the means but wilfully refuses to pay, the executing court can consider further coercive action, including civil detention for a limited period in some maintenance laws. This is a serious step and the court will hear both sides and consider whether the refusal is genuinely wilful. It is meant to compel payment, not to punish inability to pay. For this stage in particular you should have a lawyer, because the procedure and the limits differ across the maintenance laws.

Step 7 — Keep current and follow up

Continue to track every hearing date and keep adding any newly missed months to a fresh arrears statement, because arrears keep accruing until the order is paid or modified. If the other party files an appeal or revision, check the court record to see whether any stay on payment has actually been granted — a mere appeal without a stay does not stop recovery. Keep your contact details updated with the court and respond promptly to any notice.

Escalation ladder

Copy-paste demand notice template

Replace the text in square brackets with your own details before sending. Have a lawyer review it if you can.

When RTI can help

The Right to Information Act, 2005 applies to public authorities. In a maintenance-recovery matter it is a supporting tool, not the main one. RTI can be useful in these specific situations:

• Confirming public-sector employment: If the person liable to pay is a government servant, a public-sector undertaking employee or a teacher in a government-funded institution, an RTI to that employer can sometimes confirm whether the person is employed there, which helps you ask the court for a salary-deduction direction. Note that detailed salary figures of a third person can be refused as personal information unless a larger public interest is shown.
• Status of court copies and proceedings: Court records have their own access rules, but where a public office holds related records, RTI may help you find out the status of a request you have made.
• Action on your own complaints: If you complained to a public authority about non-action and heard nothing, RTI can ask what was done on your specific complaint reference.

To file an RTI, see our step-by-step guide on filing an RTI online in India. If the public information officer does not reply in time or refuses without good reason, our guide on filing a first appeal under RTI Section 19 explains the next step. For escalating a separate public-service grievance alongside RTI, see how to use CPGRAMS together with RTI. For deeper strategy, The RTI Playbook covers using RTI in difficult disputes.

When RTI will not help

RTI has clear limits here, and it is important not to rely on it for the wrong things:

• RTI cannot recover your money: Only the executing court can attach assets, deduct salary or compel payment. RTI gives information; it does not enforce an order. Do not delay your execution petition while waiting for an RTI reply.
• Private employers and private bank records: If the defaulter works for a private company or banks with a private bank, RTI does not apply to those bodies. You must ask the court to summon those records instead.
• Personal financial details of the other party: Salary slips, account balances and similar personal information of a third person are commonly exempt under the personal-information exemption, so an RTI for them is likely to be refused. The proper route is to ask the court to direct disclosure.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Going to the police instead of the court: Non-payment of maintenance is enforced by the court, not the police station. The police cannot recover money or detain someone merely for unpaid maintenance. Filing in the wrong place wastes weeks.
• Filing without a certified copy: The executing court relies on the certified order. Applying for execution with only a photocopy usually leads to delay. Get the certified copy first.
• A vague or inflated arrears claim: A loose "they owe me a lot" claim invites dispute. A precise month-by-month table supported by your bank statement is far more persuasive and harder to challenge.
• Assuming an appeal stops payment: A mere appeal or revision does not suspend the order. Payment is excused only if a higher court has actually granted a stay. Check the record before you assume the order is paused.
• Letting arrears pile up without acting: The longer you wait, the harder enforcement can become and the more the defaulter may dispose of assets. Act while the trail is fresh, and keep updating the arrears figure.
• Trying complex execution without legal help: Attachment, salary deduction and detention applications involve technical procedure that varies by maintenance law. For these, use a family-law advocate or free legal aid through the District Legal Services Authority rather than struggling alone.
• Not keeping proof of every demand and payment: Keep dispatch receipts for notices and bank records of any amounts received. These small records decide disputed arrears claims.

If the underlying problem is that the order itself is hard to enforce because a court copy is missing or wrong, see our guides on a delayed certified copy from the family court and on broader RTI first and second appeals where a public authority is involved.