(1) A Hindu wife, whether married before or after the commencement of this Act, shall be entitled to be maintained after the death of her husband by her father-in-law:
Provided and to the extent that she is unable to maintain herself out of her own earnings or other property or, where she has no property of her own, is unable to obtain maintenance—
(a) from the estate of her husband or her father or mother, or
(b) from her son or daughter, if any, or his or her estate.
(2) Any obligation under sub-section (1) shall not be enforceable if the father-in-law has not the means to do so from any coparcenary property in his possession out of which the daughter-in-law has not obtained any share, and any such obligation shall cease on the re-marriage of the daughter-in-law.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 19
Section 19 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 provides for the maintenance of a widowed daughter-in-law by her father-in-law.
Under sub-section (2), the obligation is enforceable only if the father-in-law has in his possession coparcenary property out of which the daughter-in-law has not obtained any share, and the obligation ceases if she remarries.
Section 19 prevents the destitute abandonment of widowed women upon the premature demise of their husbands. In practical litigation, the widow must affirmatively demonstrate that she lacks personal income, has not received her husband's estate, and that the father-in-law holds ancestral coparcenary property yielding sufficient income.