Supreme Court of India · 1985
Shah Bano (Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum)
In 1985, the Supreme Court fixed maintenance at Rs 179 a month in Shah Bano (Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum).
Get an estimate built from 292 reported judgements, including this one.
Calculate your maintenance →Awarded
Rs 179a month, about Rs 2,909 in today's money
Award type
Monthly
Marriage lasted
43 years
Children
5
Claimed under
Outcome
Granted
What the court was looking at
The marriage had run 43 years by the time it reached court, which puts it in the over 15 years bracket. There were 5 children, so child maintenance sat alongside the wife's own claim. The ground pleaded was talaq.
What the court held
The holdingSection 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code applies to all citizens regardless of religion, so a divorced Muslim woman may claim maintenance under it. The award itself was Rs 179.20 a month.
Why it is still cited
It is the most politically consequential maintenance judgement in Indian history. Parliament responded with the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986, which was widely read as reversing it.
How it gets misread
Read it with thisThe reversal did not hold. Danial Latifi v. Union of India (2001) read the 1986 Act as requiring provision for the woman's whole life to be arranged during iddat, and in Mohd. Abdul Samad v. State of Telangana (2024) the Supreme Court confirmed that Section 125 remains available to a divorced Muslim woman. Forty years on, Shah Bano is effectively good law again.
What makes it worth reading
Muslim divorced women's right to maintenance.
How it fits the framework
Since Rajnesh v. Neha in 2020, every maintenance order in India is meant to work through the same list of factors: the standard of living the marriage ran at, what the applicant reasonably needs, whether she is qualified and earning, and whether she gave up work for the family. A judgement from 1985 was decided before that list was written down, but the reasoning behind it is the reasoning courts had been applying for decades. There is a fuller account in how maintenance is calculated.
The calculator walks the same factors a magistrate does, then shows you the judgements nearest your facts.
See your estimate →Judgements near this one
Ranked by court, then by income bracket and marriage length rather than by date, so the comparison is with cases a court would actually treat as similar. Every row links to its own page.
| Case | Court | Year | Awarded | Claimed under | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jasbir Kaur Sehgal v. District Judge Dehradun | Supreme Court of India | 1997 | Rs 5,000Rs 28,018 in today's money | Section 24 HMA | Granted |
| Dr. Kulbhushan Kumar v. Raj Kumari | Supreme Court of India | 1970 | Rs 250Rs 13,430 in today's money | HAMA Section 18 | Granted |
| Chaturbhuj v. Sita Bai | Supreme Court of India | 2008 | Not stated | Section 125 CrPC | Granted |
| U. Sree v. U. Srinivas | Supreme Court of India | 2012 | Rs 50,00,000Rs 1,03,78,738 in today's money | Section 25 HMA | Granted |
| Bhuwan Mohan Singh v. Meena | Supreme Court of India | 2014 | Rs 2,500Rs 4,399 in today's money | Section 125 CrPC | Granted |
Sources
- AIR 1985 SC 945
- Full text of the judgement on IndianKanoon.
- Inflation adjustment method: how we restate old awards.
This page summarises a reported judgement for general information. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for reading the judgement itself or speaking to a lawyer about your own facts.
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