Kerala High Court | File Photo: PTI
Kochi: The children of interfaith couple has equal rights for receiving maintanance from parents as other children, the Kerala High Court ordered. It also held that religion, caste and belief cannot be basis for determining duties of a father. A Division Bench comprising of Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Kauser Edappagath issued an order in this regard.
The comment was made while partially allowing a father’s plea against a family court order over providing maintenance support to daughter he had in an inter-faith marriage. The appeal was against Nedumangadu Family Court’s order that the father should give Rs 16.70 lakh to his daughter for expenses borne for marriage and education.
While considering the plea, the Kerala HC reduced marriage expense from Rs 14.66 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. Besides, a maintenance of Rs 5000 and Rs 96,000 for education expenses need to be provided.
The father belongs to Hindu religion while the mother is a Muslim. The couple parted when the daughter was of age three. The mother married another person and the child was fostered by her family members. The daughter was brought up as a Muslim. It was the unmarried daughter who filed case against both parents for marriage expenses.
As per Indian laws, there are no provisions in determining the maintenance support to offspring of an inter-faith couple. Even The Special Marriage Act, 1954 is silent on that. However, the court cited that India has approved the UN Convention accord in the year 1992, which say children have the right to be protected by their parents.
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