Gujarat High Court has held that a stepmother or stepfather is not liable to maintain a stepchild because the provisions of Section 125 of the CrPC make it obligatory for kin to maintain only blood relations.
Justice JB Pardiwala acknowledged that there is no provision in law to make it incumbent on a person to maintain a stepchild born to his spouse from another partner. He said, there is need for a law to look after such helpless children in the absence of biological parents.
Section 125 of the CrPC has a provision for maintenance of a legitimate or illegitimate child but not for a child of others. The High Court gave this order while cancelling a lower court’s order to a woman to pay 3,000 rupees every month to her stepdaughter.