Interim maintenance keeps a spouse afloat while a matrimonial case is fought; permanent alimony under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 decides what happens after it ends. The provision empowers the court, at the time of passing any decree or at any time thereafter, to order either spouse to pay the other a gross sum or periodical payments — for life or such shorter term as is just. This explainer covers who can claim, what courts weigh, and how orders are varied when circumstances change.
What Section 25 is — and is not
Section 25 is ancillary jurisdiction: it operates when a court passes a decree under the Hindu Marriage Act. It is not a freestanding maintenance code. A spouse who has no matrimonial decree to point to proceeds instead under Section 144 BNSS, under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, or under the DV Act. But once a decree of divorce, nullity, judicial separation or restitution exists, Section 25 becomes the natural forum for settling the parties' financial relationship comprehensively — including by charge on property under the court's power to secure payment.
The factors courts weigh
The statute directs regard to the income and other property of both parties, their conduct, and "other circumstances of the case". Decades of practice have given that formula working content:
Means and earning capacity
Actual income, assets, and what each spouse can reasonably earn — established through affidavits of assets and liabilities in the format Delhi Family Courts require.
Standard of living
The lifestyle of the marriage sets the reference point; alimony is not limited to bare subsistence, nor is it a share in the payer's future prosperity.
Duration and contributions
Length of the marriage, child-care responsibilities, and career sacrifices made for the family weigh in quantification.
Obligations of the payer
Dependants, liabilities and legitimate expenses of the paying spouse temper the figure; maintenance already being paid under other orders is adjusted.
Lump sum or periodical
Section 25(1) permits a gross sum, or monthly or periodical payments for a term not exceeding the claimant's life. In mutual consent divorces, a one-time settlement recorded in the decree is standard practice and forecloses future rounds of litigation. In contested matters, monthly awards remain common because they can respond to change: Section 25(2) allows enhancement when costs rise or the payer prospers, and reduction when the payer's circumstances genuinely decline.
Interaction with other maintenance orders
By the time a Delhi matrimonial case reaches decree, there are often parallel orders in the field — interim maintenance under Section 24 HMA, an order under Section 144 BNSS, monetary relief under the DV Act. Section 25 is the point of consolidation. The court takes account of everything already payable, and the final order should state how earlier orders are adjusted, so that execution does not multiply. Full disclosure across proceedings is not a courtesy but an obligation; suppression is the single most common reason alimony determinations are set aside or reopened.
Enforcement
A Section 25 order is a decree of the court for execution purposes. Arrears are recoverable through the Family Court's execution machinery, including attachment of salary and property. Where payment was secured by charge, the property answers for default. For payers, the corollary is that relief from an unaffordable order lies in a variation application with candid disclosure — not in default, which accumulates arrears that courts rarely forgive.
Permanent alimony rounds off the financial architecture of a divorce; it does not touch the custody and guardianship of children, which are governed by separate proceedings, nor the children's own right to maintenance, which survives independently of the parents' settlement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a husband claim permanent alimony from his wife?
Yes. Section 25 is gender-neutral: "any court exercising jurisdiction under this Act may, on application made to it by the wife or the husband" order maintenance. Claims by husbands are uncommon but legally available where the wife has substantially greater means and the husband establishes need.
When must the application be made?
At the time of passing any decree under the Act — divorce, judicial separation, nullity or restitution — or at any time subsequent to it. The power is tied to a decree; if the main petition is dismissed, Section 25 relief does not survive with it, though other maintenance remedies remain open.
Is a lump-sum settlement better than monthly payments?
Each has consequences. A gross sum gives finality and can be secured against property, but is difficult to revisit. Monthly payments track ongoing need and can be enhanced or reduced under Section 25(2) on a change of circumstances. Courts choose the form that fits the parties' means, ages and the reliability of future payment.
Can permanent alimony be cancelled later?
Yes. Under Section 25(3), if the recipient remarries, or a recipient wife does not remain chaste, or a recipient husband has sexual intercourse outside wedlock, the court may vary, modify or rescind the order. Section 25(2) separately permits variation either way on proof of changed circumstances of either party.