MAINTENANCE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN INDIA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEGAL PROVISIONS AND JUDICIAL TRENDS

Maintenance law in India sits at the crossroads of constitutional guarantee and socio - economic reality. Designed to shield women from financial destitution occasioned by marital breakdown, separation, or desertion, the statutory architecture of maintenance spans a range of secular and personal-law instruments from the criminal-procedure mechanism now codified in Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 to the Hindu marriage and adoption statutes, and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Constitutional anchoring in Articles 14, 15, and 21 provides the normative foundation for treating maintenance not as charitable relief, but as an enforceable entitlement tethered to human dignity. Despite this elaborate framework, a persistent gap between legislative intent and lived experience endures: proceedings are slow, quantum awards inconsistent, enforcement weak, and access to justice uneven. This article provides a critical doctrinal examination of maintenance law in India. It interrogates the concept and historical development of maintenance, maps the statutory landscape including the interplay between personal and secular laws, surveys landmark judicial decisions from Shah Bano through Danial Latifi to Rajnesh v. Neha, and identifies structural impediments to effective implementation. Drawing on a rights-based and comparative perspective, the article advances targeted reform proposals uniform quantum guidelines, time-bound disposal mandates, and stronger enforcement infrastructure aimed at converting legal entitlement into substantive economic justice for women.