Hindu wife's maintenance right follows property transferred with notice under Section 39 of the Transfer of Property Act.

A Hindu wife's enforceable right to maintenance from her husband's property is protected under Section 39 of the Transfer of Property Act, even where the right is not a strict charge until crystallised. The wife's maintenance claim is linked to the husband's personal obligation and her subordinate interest in his property, and it may be met from the profits of self-acquired or ancestral property. Where immoveable property is transferred to a third party with notice of the wife's claim, the transferee takes subject to that right and cannot defeat enforcement by the alienation.

---

---

Issues: Whether a Hindu wife, whose right to maintenance had been crystallised by an order, could enforce that right against immoveable property transferred to a third party with notice of her claim under Section 39 of the Transfer of Property Act.

Analysis: The statutory protection in Section 39 extends to a person having a right to receive maintenance from the profits of immoveable property. The Hindu law materials and the decided cases recognise that a husband has a personal obligation to maintain his wife and that this obligation is connected with, and reinforced by, the wife's subordinate interest in his property arising from marriage. A wife is therefore entitled to be maintained out of the profits of her husband's property, whether self-acquired or ancestral, and if such property is transferred to a person with notice of her claim, the transferee takes subject to that right.

Conclusion: The wife was entitled to enforce her maintenance claim against the transferred items, and the transferee could not defeat that claim by the alienation.

Ratio Decidendi: A Hindu wife's enforceable right to maintenance from her husband's property, though not a strict charge until crystallised, is protected against a transferee with notice under Section 39 of the Transfer of Property Act.

---