( 1 ) A Division Bench of this Court has referred the following question of law for the opinion of the Full Bench:-- "whether the moral obligation of a father-in-law possessed of separate or self-acquired property, to maintain the widowed daughter-in-law ripens into a legal obligation in the hands of persons to whom he has either bequeathed his property or made and gift of his property?"

( 2 ) CASES similar to the one now referred to this Full Bench hereafter may very rarely come for adjudication before the Courts in view of the enactment of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (LXXVIII 1956) under which the rights of daughter-in-law for maintenance have been codified. Section 19 provides for maintenance of widowed daughter-in-law by her father-in-law under the circumstances mentioned therein. Under Section 21 the widow of a pre-deceased son is a dependant. Section 22 speaks of the maintenance of dependants. Therefore, matters in respect of maintenance of widowed daughter-in-law are governed by the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, where the death of the father-in-law takes place subsequent to the coming into force of the above Act.

( 3 ) THE present case