Reply To: Wife claim on gift – inheritance from husband's family

She can ask for maintenance under Sec.125. The question is how much will she get ? As the husband has no regular income and obviously files no income tax returns, it is an open question quite dependant on the judge presiding. She cannot ask for a share in the property and moneys that his parents have given him, but as there is no other yardstick to determine how much he earns, that money and property amounts may be used to figure out how much he actually makes in a year.

If his parents want to give him more property, then the simple method would be to create a trust with the property and money with him as the beneficiary and the parents as the trustees. That way only the income from the trust would constitute income and not the assets. This can be done under Sec.6 of Married Women’s Protection Act.