CrPC Section 127 — Alteration in allowance

CHAPTER IX ORDER FOR MAINTENANCE OF WIVES, CHILDREN AND PARENTS

General

Summary

Sub-section (1) allows the Magistrate to change a maintenance or interim-maintenance allowance if there is proof that the circumstances have changed. It applies to a person receiving an allowance under section 125, or ordered under that section to pay one to a wife, child, father or mother. The Magistrate may make the change the Magistrate considers appropriate.

Sub-section (2) requires the Magistrate to cancel or vary an order under section 125 if it appears that a decision of a competent Civil Court means the order should be cancelled or changed.

Sub-section (3) applies to an order under section 125 in favour of a woman who has been divorced by her husband or has obtained a divorce from him. If the Magistrate is satisfied that:

(a) the woman remarried after the divorce, the Magistrate must cancel the order from the date of her remarriage;

(b) the woman was divorced by her husband and received the whole sum payable on the divorce under the parties’ applicable customary or personal law, the Magistrate must cancel the order. Under clause (b)(i), if the sum was paid before the order was made, cancellation takes effect from the date the order was made. Under clause (b)(ii), in any other case, cancellation takes effect from the end of any period for which the husband actually paid maintenance to the woman;

(c) the woman obtained a divorce from her husband and, after the divorce, voluntarily gave up her right to maintenance or interim maintenance, the Magistrate must cancel the order from the date of the order.

Sub-section (4) requires a Civil Court, when making a decree to recover maintenance or dowry for a person who has been ordered to receive a monthly maintenance or interim-maintenance allowance under section 125, to take into account the amount paid to or recovered by that person as an allowance under the order.

Official Text

1[

(1) On proof of a change in the circumstances of any person, receiving, under section 125 a monthly allowance for the maintenance or interim maintenance, or ordered under the same section to pay a monthly allowance for the maintenance, or interim maintenance, to his wife, child, father or mother, as the case may be, the Magistrate may make such alteration, as he thinks fit, in the allowance for the maintenance or the interim maintenance, as the case may be.]

(2) Where it appears to the Magistrate that, in consequence of any decision of a competent Civil Court, any order made under section 125 should be cancelled or varied, he shall cancel the order or, as the case may be, vary the same accordingly.

(3) Where any order has been made under section 125 in favour of a woman who has been divorced by, or has obtained a divorce from, her husband, the Magistrate shall, if he is satisfied that—

(a) the woman has, after the date of such divorce, remarried, cancel such order as from the date of her remarriage;

(b) the woman has been divorced by her husband and that she has received, whether before or after the date of the said order, the whole of the sum which, under any customary or personal law applicable to the parties, was payable on such divorce, cancel such order,—

(i) in the case where such sum was paid before such order, from the date on which such order was made;

(ii) in any other case, from the date of expiry of the period, if any, for which maintenance has been actually paid by the husband to the woman;

(c) the woman has obtained a divorce from her husband and that she had voluntarily surrendered her rights to 2[maintenance or interim maintenance, as the case may be,] after her divorce, cancel the order from the date thereof.

(4) At the time of making any decree for the recovery of any maintenance or dowry by any person, to whom a 3[monthly allowance for the maintenance and interim maintenance or any of them has been ordered] to be paid under section 125, the Civil Court shall take into account the sum which has been paid to, or recovered by, such person 1[as monthly allowance for the maintenance and interim maintenance or any of them, as the case may be, in pursuance of] the said order.

Sections referred to

Related Judgments

  • Komal Kushal Kamble & Anr. vs Kushal Kaluram Kamble & Anr — Bombay High Court (Mumbai Principal Seat) (2025)
  • Samir Girish Bhatia vs Jagruti Samir Bhatia — Bombay High Court (Mumbai Principal Seat) (2025)
  • DANIAL LATIFI AND ANR. vs UNION OF INDIA — Supreme Court of India (2001)
  • NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY NEW DELHI vs OWAIS AMIN @ CHERRY & ORS — Supreme Court of India (2024)

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