PUNE: A widow is entitled to claim maintenance from her father-in-law if the latter is in possession of her deceased husband's self-acquired property, a family court here has ruled.

Judge A G Farswani pronounced a judgment to this effect recently while allowing the petition filed by a woman, who lost her husband in January 2009, over two years after their marriage as per the Hindu vedic rites at Deolali in Nashik in November 2006, and was forced out of her matrimonial home by her in-laws.

In a 28-page judgment, the court directed the father-in-law to pay her a maintenance of Rs 40,000 per month and a lump sum maintenance of Rs 7 lakh for the period between September 2009, when the petition was filed, till the date of the order. The court also directed the father-in-law to pay Rs 10,000 cost to the petitioner. The lump sum amount and the cost are to be paid within a fortnight from the date of order, the court ruled.

The woman (name withheld) and her husband were living in a joint family along with her father-in-law and two sisters-in-law at Katraj. A fortnight after her husband's death, she had to leave for Mumbai to see her ailing mother. However, when she returned on February 3, 2009, her in-laws refused to let her enter the house. Later, she filed a case against the in-laws, seeking compensation, 'streedhan' and other reliefs under the Domestic Violence (DV) Act and the matter is pending in a magisterial court.

In September 2009, she moved a petition before the family court seeking residence and maintenance under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act from her father-in-law.

She claimed that her husband, who owned an ice-cream factory at Katraj, was earning Rs 40,000 per month and also had substantial investments in shares, insurance policies, public provident fund and mutual fund accounts. He also owned a share in the proceeds of the matrimonial family's ancestral house which was sold in 2007.

She alleged that she was driven out of the matrimonial house and was deprived of her legal rights and that her father-in-law had withdrawn monies from the bank accounts she jointly held with her husband. She claimed Rs 1 lakh monthly maintenance and right to live in the matrimonial house.

On his part, the father-in-law had claimed that he was entitled to keep all the properties by virtue of a will left on November 3, 2008 by his deceased son. He also claimed that he had extended a substantial loan to his son which the daughter-in-law was liable to repay. The daughter-in-law has challenged the probate of will (court process by which a will is proved valid or invalid) and the same is pending final disposal.

The family court observed that it was not going into the question of validity of the will but was considering whether the respondent (father-in-law) had in his custody the estate of the deceased person.

It noted that the respondent himself had admitted that the estate of his son - assessed at over Rs 1.5 crore as per the value of 2009 - was in his custody. This included movable and immovable properties of the deceased husband, some of which was reinvested by the father-in-law.

The court observed, "It is a well known principle under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act that a testator (person who leaves a will) can only bequeath his self-acquired properties and not the coparcenary (inherited) properties. The petitioner being the widowed daughter-in-law having no sufficient earnings of her own or other property, is entitled to be maintained as a dependent from the estate of her deceased husband which was in custody and possession of the father-in-law. As such, she is entitled to claim maintenance."

The court set aside an earlier grant of interim maintenance of Rs 5,000 to the petitioner under the DV Act and ruled that the Rs 40,000 monthly maintenance is all inclusive.

