Maintenance and Child Custody in Gurgaon: A Practical Guide

Maintenance and custody are the two questions that tend to matter most once a marriage is actually ending — often more immediately than the divorce itself, since both can be decided while the main case is still pending. Here's how each actually works.

Maintenance: who can claim it, and where

A spouse, and children, can claim maintenance under more than one law simultaneously in some circumstances — Section 144 BNSS (the successor to Section 125 CrPC), the Hindu Marriage Act, or the Domestic Violence Act, depending on the situation. Interim maintenance can be sought while the main case is pending, so a dependent spouse isn't left without support for the years a contested case can run. Courts generally weigh the paying spouse's income, the claimant's needs, and the standard of living during the marriage — there's no fixed formula, which is exactly why the evidence presented about both parties' finances matters so much.

Custody: the standard courts actually apply

Indian courts decide custody on the welfare of the child, not on either parent's entitlement. For a young child, courts often lean toward the mother, but this isn't automatic — it gives way to the child's welfare where the facts point elsewhere. Custody isn't always all-or-nothing either: courts regularly order joint or shared arrangements, with defined visitation, rather than handing full custody to one side.

How these run alongside a divorce case

Both maintenance and custody can be, and usually are, decided as interim matters early in the case rather than waiting for the final divorce order — which matters practically, since a contested divorce can run considerably longer than either party expects. See the earlier guide on the grounds for divorce in India for how the timeline for mutual consent compares to a contested case.

Where criminal matters intersect

Maintenance and custody disputes sometimes run alongside a criminal complaint under domestic violence law or, less often, a 498A complaint. Where that's the case, the civil and criminal proceedings need to be handled with an eye on each other, not in isolation.

Read more on the practice's family law work on the divorce and family lawyer page, or see the FAQ page for other commonly asked questions.