Maintenance arrears recovery survives despite procedural time limit; substantive liability continues and successive default claims remain maintainable.

The first proviso to Section 125(3) CrPC limits only the coercive remedy for recovery of maintenance, not the underlying substantive right to receive maintenance. Where the claimant does not move the court within one year from accrual, recovery by treating the amount as a fine and by custody under that provision is restricted, but the liability itself survives and ordinary civil recovery remains available. Because maintenance is a continuing obligation, successive applications may be filed for later defaults. On this construction, the High Court's limitation approach was incorrect, and recovery of the full arrears from the original date of entitlement was maintained.

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Issues: Whether the first proviso to Section 125(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 limits or extinguishes the claimant's entitlement to recover all arrears of maintenance, and whether maintenance defaults can be pursued through successive applications for subsequent periods of default.

Analysis: The proviso to Section 125(3) does not curtail the substantive right to maintenance. It only restricts the coercive procedure under that provision, namely recovery by treating the amount as a fine and committing the defaulter to custody, where the claimant has not approached the court within one year from the date the entitlement accrued. The underlying liability to pay maintenance remains unaffected, and the ordinary civil remedy for recovery continues to be available. Maintenance liability is continuing in nature, and successive applications are maintainable to address later defaults. The earlier case law treating imprisonment as a mode of enforcement and not a mode of satisfaction supports this construction.

Conclusion: The limitation applied by the High Court was incorrect. The appellants remained entitled to recover the full arrears of maintenance from the original date of entitlement, and the maintenance order was to be enforced accordingly.

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