Under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the statutory maintenance remedy is…

Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (formerly Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973) is a secular, welfare-oriented provision enacted to prevent vagrancy and destitution, and its applicability to a wife (including a divorced wife who has not remarried under the Explanation to Section 144(1)) does not depend on the religion or personal law of the parties. This foundational proposition was settled in 1985 by a five-Judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, (1985) 2 SCC 556, and reaffirmed in Mohd. Abdul Samad v. State of Telangana, 2024 INSC 506. By contrast, Begum Subanu alias Saira Banu v. A.M. Abdul Gafoor, (1987) 2 SCC 285 was a later two-Judge Bench decision applying that principle to a wife's right to live separately when the husband takes a second wife or mistress, and Sirajmohamedkhan Janmohamadkhan v. Hafizunnisa Yasinkhan, (1981) 4 SCC 250 was a two-Judge Bench decision on a husband's impotence as just ground for the wife to live separately.