Filing a Child Maintenance Termination Claim in Bahrain requires following specific procedures, preparing a claim form that the court can accept, and meeting certain legal conditions.
In this article, Bahrain Lawyer explains these requirements and the main points you need to know.
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Sample Child Maintenance Termination Claim in Bahrain
Below is a sample claim for terminating child maintenance in Bahrain:
Court: ــــــــــــــــ
Claimant: ــــــــــــــــ, CPR No.: ــــــــــــــ, Address: ـــــــــــــــ.
Defendant: ـــــــــــــــ, CPR No.: ــــــــــــــ, Address: ـــــــــــــــ.
Introduction:
I, ـــــــــــــ (claimant’s name), hereby file this claim against ـــــــــــــ (defendant’s name) seeking the termination of the maintenance awarded in her favor under the judgment issued in Case No. ـــــــــ for the year ـــــــــ.
Grounds:
(State the reasons supporting the request to terminate maintenance)
Requests:
- To issue a judgment terminating the maintenance awarded to the defendant under the judgment issued in Case No. ـــــــــ for the year ــــــــ, effective from ـــــــــــ (the date on which termination of maintenance should begin).
- To order the defendant to repay the maintenance amounts she received from ـــــــــــ (the date from which repayment is claimed) until the date of the judgment.
- To order the defendant to pay the court costs.
I respectfully request that the Honorable Court accept this claim and issue a judgment terminating the maintenance awarded to the defendant, ordering her to repay the maintenance amounts received and to bear the court costs.
Note: This is a general template. Therefore, when starting divorce proceedings before the Bahraini Jaafari Court or Sunni Court, you should consult a lawyer to prepare a maintenance termination claim that reflects the specific facts of your case. You should also make sure to attach the documents supporting your claim, including:
- A copy of the divorce certificate.
- A copy of the claimant’s CPR card.
- A copy of the defendant’s CPR card.
- A copy of the judgment issued in the maintenance case.
- Any other documents supporting the maintenance termination claim.
When Does Child Maintenance End in Bahrain?
Under Article 61 of Bahrain’s maintenance provisions, the father is responsible for maintaining a minor child who has no property or income of their own. For a daughter, the obligation generally continues until marriage, while for a son it continues until he reaches an age at which his peers are ordinarily capable of earning an income.
Article 62 also provides that a financially capable mother may become responsible for the child’s maintenance after the father if the father is absent, has no financial means, or is unable to provide maintenance.
Article 63 further provides that children’s maintenance after divorce or separation should continue in a way that preserves their previous educational and social standard.
This is also subject to Article 45, which requires the child’s social and educational circumstances to be taken into account when maintenance is assessed after divorce.
Judicial Precedents on Child Maintenance Termination in Bahrain
The Court of Cassation issued a judgment terminating a Bahraini father’s maintenance obligation toward his son after the son continued receiving maintenance from March 2015 despite having secured employment and earning a salary of approximately BHD 3,000. The court also ordered the mother to bear the costs and legal fees.
According to the facts presented by the appellant’s lawyer, his client had filed a claim explaining that he had previously been married to the respondent and that they had a son and a daughter. Upon divorce, the divorce document included an agreement requiring him to pay monthly maintenance of BHD 80 for both children.
The son later reached working age and became employed by a government ministry from ـــــ/ ـــــ/ ـــــــ. The appellant argued that he was therefore no longer legally required to maintain him. He requested termination of the maintenance agreed with his former wife and asked the court to order repayment of the amounts received during that period.
The Sharia Court ruled that the maintenance awarded to the respondent, amounting to BHD 80 per month, should be terminated from ـــــ/ ـــــ/ ـــــــ and ordered repayment of the amounts received.
The mother appealed the judgment, and the Sharia Court of Appeal overturned it and dismissed the claim. The judgment was then challenged before the Court of Cassation.
The lawyer argued that the appellate judgment conflicted with the evidence in the case file. The original maintenance amount covered both the son and the daughter, while the appellant had requested termination only of the son’s share, amounting to BHD 40. He argued that the reason for continuing the son’s maintenance had ceased because the son had reached working age and obtained government employment.
In its reasoning, the court found that this argument was well founded. The case documents showed that the son had been appointed to a job on 3/1/2015 and had been receiving a monthly income from his employment. As a result, the father was no longer required to pay maintenance for him from that date.
The court therefore found that the legal grounds for terminating the maintenance agreed for the son, amounting to BHD 40, had been established. It accepted the appeal in form and substance, partially overturned the challenged judgment insofar as it had rejected termination of the son’s maintenance from 3/1/2015, and ordered the respondent to pay the costs and legal fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
The following are some frequently asked questions concerning a Child Maintenance Termination Claim in Bahrain:
Can a Maintenance Case Be Filed Without Divorce?
Yes, a maintenance case can be filed without divorce before the competent court.
What Documents Are Required for a Child Maintenance Termination Claim in Bahrain?
The documents required for a Child Maintenance Termination Claim in Bahrain may include:
1. A copy of the marriage certificate.
2. A copy of the court judgment awarding maintenance, showing the end date of the maintenance obligation.
3. Divorce registration documents showing the date of divorce.
This concludes our article on a Child Maintenance Termination Claim in Bahrain, in which we explained the main rules under Bahrain family law regarding the termination of child maintenance and the legal grounds that may support such a claim.
You can also review a suitable appeal form for a Child Maintenance in Bahrain: Rights, Calculation, and Duration.
A Bahraini lawyer and the founder of a legal consultancy firm established in February 2019. He holds a Higher Degree in Sharia and Law from Al-Azhar University. He has extensive experience in court representation and providing legal advice in criminal, personal status, civil, and commercial matters. He is known for delivering clear, practical, and effective legal advice aimed at protecting his clients’ rights and interests, and has achieved tangible results in notable cases, including commercial litigation and inheritance matters
