Written explainers
How maintenance actually works in India
Plain explanations of the statutes, the benchmarks and the arguments that decide what gets paid. Written for someone who has just been told to expect a hearing and does not know where to start.
Or skip straight to a number. The estimator takes about ninety seconds.
Calculate your maintenance →The main guide
How alimony is calculated in India
There is no formula. Anyone who tells you there is one is selling something. What there is instead is a list of factors, one rough benc
Method note
Reading old awards properly
Precedent is quoted in the money of its own year, which makes most of it misleading. This is the correction, and the arithmetic behind
Statute guide
Maintenance under Section 125 CrPC
The remedy most people end up using. It applies whatever your religion, it is heard by a magistrate, and it was renumbered in 2024 with
Statute guide
Sections 24 and 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act
Two sections, two very different remedies, and people confuse them constantly. One keeps you going during the case. The other settles t
Comparison
Permanent alimony or interim maintenance
Two different orders, made at different points, on different reasoning. People quote figures from one at hearings about the other and w
Statute guide
Maintenance for divorced Muslim women
Forty years of litigation, three landmark judgements and one statute passed to reverse a court. The position in 2026 is clearer than mo
Who can claim
Alimony for husbands in India
The short answer is yes, under one statute, rarely, and only if you genuinely cannot maintain yourself. The longer answer is more inter
Where the judgements are
Every guide here is built on decided cases, and all of them are in the casebook: 292 reported judgements from the Supreme Court and nineteen High Courts, filterable by court, provision and outcome, with every award restated in today's money.