Alimony Rules in India: How Courts Decide Maintenance After Divorce, With the Formula Judges Actually Use

"How much alimony will I get?" and "how much will I have to pay?" are the two questions every family lawyer is asked first, and the honest answer to both is that Indian law does not say. There is no table, no percentage in any statute and no calculator. What there is, since 2020, is a set of factors every court must apply, a sworn disclosure both spouses must make, and a body of Supreme Court decisions that show where the numbers tend to land. This guide sets out the laws, the process and the benchmarks.

The laws that apply

Provision	Who can claim	What
Section 144, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (formerly Section 125 CrPC)	Wife (including a divorced wife who has not remarried), children, parents — of any religion	Monthly maintenance, in a summary proceeding before a magistrate, with interim maintenance pending decision
Sections 24 and 25, Hindu Marriage Act, 1955	Either spouse	Interim maintenance and litigation expenses during proceedings (Section 24); permanent alimony, lump sum or periodic, at or after decree (Section 25)
Section 18, Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956	Hindu wife	Maintenance from the husband, including while living separately for justified reasons, without divorce
Sections 36 and 37, Special Marriage Act, 1954	Either spouse in a civil marriage	Interim maintenance and permanent alimony
Section 20, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005	Woman in a domestic relationship	Monetary relief including maintenance, in addition to other remedies
Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986	Divorced Muslim wife	Fair and reasonable provision and maintenance within the iddat period, which the Supreme Court in Danial Latifi (2001) read as extending to her future; Section 125 also available, as the court held in 2024

Claims under more than one provision are common. The Supreme Court in Rajnesh v. Neha directed that a claimant disclose earlier orders, and that a later court adjust its award for maintenance already being paid, so that the total is fair rather than cumulative.

The process: the affidavit of assets

Rajnesh v. Neha changed the way maintenance is decided. Both parties must file, at the outset, a sworn affidavit of their income, assets, liabilities and expenses in the format the court prescribed — salary and business income, bank accounts, property, vehicles, investments, loans, dependants, monthly household expenses, and the standard of living during the marriage. A false affidavit attracts perjury proceedings, and courts draw adverse inferences against a spouse who conceals income. The judgment also directed that interim maintenance be decided within four to six months and that maintenance run from the date of the application, so delay in deciding does not reward the paying spouse.

The factors

1. Status and standard of living of the parties during the marriage. The claimant is entitled to live as nearly as possible as before, not merely to subsist.
2. Reasonable needs of the claimant and the children — housing, food, education, medical expenses, and the costs of the children's upbringing.
3. Income and assets of both. Actual income, and where a spouse is qualified but not working, earning capacity; the court looks at tax returns, bank statements and lifestyle, not only the salary slip.
4. The paying spouse's liabilities — dependent parents, loans, other children — and a reasonable amount for his or her own living.
5. Duration of the marriage and the claimant's age, health and prospects of employment; a long marriage during which a wife gave up a career weighs heavily.
6. Conduct is largely irrelevant to quantum, though a wife living in adultery or who has deserted the husband without reason may be disentitled under Section 144.

The benchmarks courts use

• One-fourth of net income. In Kalyan Dey Chowdhury v. Rita Dey Chowdhury (2017) the Supreme Court held that 25 per cent of the husband's net salary was a just and proper amount of maintenance for the wife. Family courts and High Courts cite the figure routinely as a starting point, raising it where there are children and lowering it where the wife has income or the husband has dependants.
• The unit method. Several High Courts, following the Delhi High Court in Annurita Vohra (2004), divide the family's net income into units — two for each earning adult, one for each dependent — and allocate accordingly; a husband, wife and child would be five units, with the wife and child entitled to two-fifths.
• Lump sum permanent alimony. There is no percentage. The Supreme Court has awarded one-time settlements calculated to produce an income replacing the monthly figure, and in Parvin Kumar Jain v. Anju Jain (2024) listed the factors for a lump sum: the parties' status, the claimant's needs, the payer's income and assets, the standard of living, the sacrifices made for the family, the cost of litigation, and the payer's financial capacity. Awards in reported cases range from a few lakh to several crore, tracking the payer's wealth.

Lump sum or monthly

	Lump sum	Monthly
Finality	Ends the financial relationship; not revisable except in rare cases	Revisable on change of circumstances under Section 25(2) or Section 144
Risk	On the recipient — invest it wisely; on the payer — paying now for a future the recipient may not have	On the recipient — collection, default, the payer's job loss or remarriage
Tax	Treated as a capital receipt, not taxed as income, on existing case law	Treated as income of the recipient; not deductible by the payer
Enforcement	One payment, usually a condition of the decree or settlement	Arrears recoverable by attachment of salary and property; wilful default can lead to imprisonment under Section 146 of the BNSS

When maintenance ends or changes

• Remarriage of the recipient ends maintenance under most provisions; the payer's remarriage does not, though his new obligations are weighed on a revision application.
• Change of circumstances — a large rise or fall in either party's income, a child reaching majority, a serious illness — grounds an application to vary.
• Children's maintenance continues until majority, and for a daughter until marriage under Hindu law and in practice for education for both; a child's needs are assessed separately from the spouse's.
• Mutual consent divorce. The settlement recorded in the decree binds both; a wife who gives up maintenance in a consent decree generally cannot claim later, but a child's claim cannot be bargained away.

Practical points

1. File early; maintenance runs from the date of the application, and interim maintenance can be sought at the first hearing.
2. Prepare the affidavit carefully and truthfully; it is the document on which the case is decided, and an incomplete one is the most common reason for a low interim award.
3. Collect evidence of the payer's lifestyle — travel, vehicles, property, business — where the declared income does not match it.
4. Consider mediation; family courts refer most maintenance disputes to it, and a settlement with a lump sum and a schedule for children's expenses is faster and more certain than a contested order.
5. Enforce promptly. Arrears beyond a year are harder to recover; an application under Section 146 for attachment should follow the first default.

Maintenance law turns on the facts of each marriage and on which statute applies; the benchmarks above are starting points that courts depart from regularly. Consult a family lawyer or the district legal services authority, which provides free representation to eligible claimants, before filing or responding to a claim.

This guide is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified lawyer about their own circumstances.