From Morality to Legal Right: A Comprehensive Analysis on Parent's Alimony

Abstract

Violation of the rights of parents to reasonable maintenance have become the most common feature of rapidly growing developing countries like Bangladesh. Despite legal framework, parent's rights are ignored in practice which is revealed in real field studies. Real scenario is depicting deplorable situations of the parents which is inculcated in another level of discomfort. Although parliament passed a new piece of legislation in 2013 to make redress for the existing problem regarding parent's maintenance, this Act is suffering from ambiguity regarding definition clauses, reasonable amount of maintenance, detailed procedures about realizing the demand, specific body of rules etc. At present, there are few cases that were brought under the Act. Moreover, most parents are not aware of their legal rights of them. In most cases, parents are left without proper remedy when their legal right is infringed. Lack of proper monitoring, spreading knowledge about this maintenance right, apathy towards this right, vicious practices of children regarding due maintenance towards parents are making deviant lines in the smooth pathway of justice. This article presents a view of how parents in the existing legal framework are projected to vulnerability, the prudent legislative efforts and judicial activism of various jurisdiction of the world and outlines effective recommendations towards mitigating the vulnerabilities. It also depicts the criticisms of current Act and how this maintenance right was shaped in legal reality from morality.