Court orders daughter to pay alimony to woman

COIMBATORE: A Valparai court has ordered a woman to provide her mother, who is suffering from extreme poverty, Rs 20,000 per month in alimony, sending a clear message to other children about not leaving their parents behind when they get older.

Delivering the order, Justice Senthil Kumar observed that a daughter is also liable to pay maintenance, when the mother is struggling to make ends meet.

According to the prosecution, fifty-two-year-old Aarayi’s husband Ponnusamy, who was employed as a sanitary worker in Valparai Municipality, had passed away on December 28, 2013, due to cardiac arrest at work. The couple has three daughters Kavitha, 35, Manju, 33 and Gowri, 31.

Following Ponnusamy’s death, Gowri landed in the job of junior assistant in Attur Municipality office in Salem on compassionate grounds eight years ago. Since the day of her joining the job, she turned down desperate pleas from her mother and as well as her two sisters for financial help.

Therefore, Aarayi moved the Judicial Magistrate Court in Valparai on November 18, 2022, seeking maintenance, while underscoring that a daughter is also duty bound to provide maintenance as she does not have a son as a legal heir and also in lieu of her youngest daughter’s decent salary in a government job. Her two other daughters were not in a financially stable position.

On hearing the case, Judicial Magistrate Senthil Kumar ordered Gowri to pay Rs 20,000 every month and Rs 3.2 lakh pending arrears since November 18, 2022, besides Rs 15,000 towards court expenses to her mother.