Second wife will get maintenance if duped into marriage: Gauhati High Court

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has held that under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, a man must pay maintenance to his second wife if the marriage in question was solemnized by providing false information about the first wife.

The court's judgment came in connection with a petition filed by a man who challenged the award of monthly maintenance of Rs 5,000 to his estranged second wife by the Subdivisional Judicial Magistrate (M), Bilasipara and its subsequent affirmation by the Additional Sessions Judge, Bilasipara.

The court noted that the husband had not denied the fact of his second marriage, nor had he tried to have the second marriage annulled in any court of law. In fact, the court observed, there was ample proof that the man and his second wife had led a conjugal life for around six months before the woman left him.

The petitioner's counsel had contended that the second marriage was null and void under the Hindu Marriage Act as the man had a first wife who was alive, a fact that was known by the second wife. However, the second wife's counsel submitted that the man had shown his client documentary evidence of having already divorced his first wife. However, the document turned out to be fraudulent.

The court noted in its order: "…There is material on record to show that the petitioner had married the respondent (second wife) by saying and showing fake documents that he had divorced his first wife…Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that in such proceedings all that the wife has to prove is the performance of certain marriage ceremonies and it is immaterial whether the same satisfy all the requirements of a valid marriage. The party who challenges the validity of the marriage has to establish it in a competent civil court. Therefore, it was for the first respondent (husband) to have gone to a competent civil court and get his marriage annulled. Not having done that, it is not for the courts below to go to his rescue and declare that the marriage between him and the petitioner was not legal." Consequently, the court upheld the judgments of the two lower courts and endorsed the award of maintenance of Rs 5,000 to the second wife.

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