5.6 Maintenance and Support for Children

The duty's content: food, clothing, shelter, education, health — the full-support duty according to the parents' means until majority (18) and beyond in the defined cases (the child in education; the child with disability — the support continues while dependency continues); Equal for every child: daughters and sons, legitimate and otherwise — no differentiation; After divorce: BOTH parents remain liable regardless of custody — the non-custodial parent's contribution fixed in the decree (interim maintenance during proceedings); the Children's Act 2075's independent maintenance claim for the child; Enforcement: the maintenance decree's execution machinery (LAW 302's civil-procedure detail: execution, attachment, imprisonment for wilful default); the practice critique — arrears, under-award, the migrant-father's remittance-dodge; Where parents fail: the State's substitute-support duty of last resort (the Children's Act's protection framework) — the constitutional floor of Article 39. Exam Focus Long questions: (i) Establishment of the parent-child relation (maternity by birth; paternity's three routes — presumption/acknowledgment/judicial proof); (ii) Status of children — the historical ladder to non-discrimination; (iii) Child custody — the best- interest principle, access, the habeas route; (iv) Rights and duties between parents and children (the reciprocal catalogue — students who write only "parents maintain children" lose half the marks). Short questions: presumption of legitimacy (rebuttable — say how); access orders; the child of a void marriage's status; maintenance after divorce. Trick areas:…