Section - 20. Maintenance of children and aged parents
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section a Hindu is bound, during his or her lifetime, to maintain his or her legitimate or illegitimate children and his or her aged or infirm parents.
(2) A legitimate or illegitimate child may claim maintenance from his or her father or mother so long as the child is a minor.
(3) The obligation of a person to maintain his or her aged or infirm parent or a daughter who is unmarried extends insofar as the parent or the unmarried daughter, as the case may be, is unable to maintain himself or herself out of his or her own earnings or other property.
Explanation: In his section "parent” includes a childless step-mother.COMMENTS
There is no liability casted upon step-son as to maintain his step mother under this section, though the step-son is liable to maintain her as a dependent- Pannalal v. Fulmani AIR 1987 Cal 768
Unmarried daughter, aged or infirm parents can enforce their rights only in these cases where they are unable to maintain themselves from their own earnings or from the property owned by them where almost all the property is given in gift by the mother to her only daughter and the rest of property is sold by her to her brother, she gets entitled to be maintained by her daughter.-Munnidevi.v. Chhoti AIR 1983 All 444.
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