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‘Second wife can’t be called legally wedded spouse even if...’: HC
The bench observed that even if the second wife was in the dark about the husband’s first marriage, she can’t be called a legally wed spouse
A man’s second wife cannot be called his legally wed spouse even if she was kept in the dark about his first marriage, the Mumbai’s high court’s Nagpur bench has observed while rejecting a woman’s plea for restitution of conjugal rights and maintenance from her husband. The 47-year-old woman moved the high court in 2012 after a family court refused to accept her claim of being the 66-year-old man’s legally wed wife.
“Even if it is assumed for the sake of argument that the appellant [second wife] had been kept in dark about the first marriage of the respondent [husband] with Chandrakala in the year 1990, on proof of the said fact, the contention of the appellant that she is legally wedded wife of the respondent cannot be accepted,” said a division bench of justices AS Chandurkar and GA Sanap on Thursday.
Chandrakala pleaded the family court discarded her evidence and testimony of witnesses supporting her claim that she married the 66-year-old in accordance with their rites and customs in August 2003. She added they lived together for over five years. She claimed the man deserted her in October 2008 when she refused to pay him ₹50,000. Chandrakala said the man’s relatives beat her when she eventually traced him.
The man denied having married Chandrakala and said he got married in 1990 and divorced in 2009. Thus, he claimed, in any case, the second marriage was void.
The high court accepted his contention and held Chandrakala was not his legally wedded wife as he was yet to get divorced at the time of the second marriage. Chandrakala admitted in her cross-examination that she knew about his first marriage.
The bench rejected her contention that she was entitled to maintenance on account of the five years of cohabitation even if her marriage was held to be void.
