Alimony:The general perception is that the person initiating a divorce shall not be entitled to

any financial support from their spouse. This, however, is not entirely true. It all depends on the financial position of the spouse. In the event of the wife not being able to sustain herself financially, or having no source of income for herself, she then is entitled to an allowance as maintenance. On the other hand, if she is earning sufficiently well for herself, she cannot claim any maintenance. Herein, an interesting question arises, ' whether a husband has any right to claim maintenance from his wife'. The answer is, surprisingly, in the positive. Under the Hindu Marriage Act, this provision has raised many an eyebrow. To put it simply, depending on the circumstances, a husband also has the right to ask for alimony. There are various laws that govern the quantum of maintenance to be decided upon, and awarded by the court. An application for maintenance can be filed in India by the Hindus, under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, and under the Hindu Marriage Act. There are other personal laws for people following different faiths. Thus, people belonging to other religions are governed by such personal laws. However, irrespective of one's caste, creed or religion; any person can file an application for maintenance, under section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Besides the wife and husband, the parents and children of the respondent, can also vice versa claim maintenance under this particular section.

The Court decides to grant maintenance only when an application is filed before it. It is entirely at the discretion of the Court to decide if at all any maintenance deserves to be awarded to the applicant/ petitioner, and if so, then the amount of main tenance to be granted. Whilst doing so, the Court takes into account various factors that would affect the quantum of maintenance to be decided upon, such as, the status and financial position of the parties concerned, the number of dependants on the respondent, etc. Although the wife who makes the application for maintenance is earning sufficiently well for herself, she can yet be entitled to alimony in case her husband's income exceeds way beyond her own. This reasoning being on the premise that the wife is entitled to live as per the standards

polygamy
Polygamy means a system of marriage whereby a person has more than one spouse. Polygamy can be of two types one is polygyny where a man marries more than one woman, and the other is polyandry, where a woman marries more than one man. Polygamy and polyandry were prevalent in ancient India, but it is doubtful whether they were ever popular in the public opinion. It was practiced mostly by the warrior castes and rich merchants. Polygamy in ancient India was a matter of personal choice, status symbol and at times social, moral and religious obligation. In todays times, marriage laws are well defined for every religion and these are to be practiced very strictly. The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 It is illegal for a man to have more than one wife. Islam is another religion followed by a large number of people in India and it also has its own set of laws. Quran, the holy book of Muslims, is the only religious scripture in the world that says marry only one(Zakir Naik, 1995). The claim is that in no other religious book there is this instruction to have only one wife. According to the Hindu religious scriptures, whether it be the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata or the Geeta, one can marry as many as one wishes. It was only later, that the Hindu priests restricted the number of wives to oneIn earlier times, Christian men were permitted as many wives as they wished, since the Bible puts no restriction on the number of wives. It was only a few centuries ago that the Church restricted the number of wives to one. In modern times, a person is bound by the marriage laws laid down by their religion and have to be adhered to and any deviation from the norms are considered to be illegal.