Unrealistic Expectations from Maintenance Orders

I interned with a legal aid group in Delhi and it was there that I realized how Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is often misunderstood. Textbooks will tell you about how women can get a one-time lumpsum maintenance order or recurring payments from their husbands if they've been abandoned or divorced. But what they don't tell you is that in practice, getting these orders is a huge ordeal. The magistrate can only pass an order if the woman has no visible means of support, which is a pretty subjective standard. And even then, the husband can appeal and the order gets stuck in limbo for years. It's a perfect example of how the law is often written with the best intentions, but turns out to be completely toothless in reality.