LCI Learning

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Email

Share More

Hemant Agarwal (ha21@rediffmail.com Mumbai : 9820174108)     05 May 2010

2nd wife has no legal claim

This was reported in  "Times of India,  dated 05 May'2010, Mumbai edition, page 05".
(read article, as reproduced below)

 

‘2nd wife has no legal claim’

 

Mumbai:  A 64-year-old television actor, who is the second wife of an Andheri resident, recently moved the Bombay high court, seeking maintenance from her former husband, after their 17-year relationship ended. However, a division bench of Justice A P Deshpande and Justice R P Sondurbaldota rejected her maintenance plea, saying she was not the “legally wedded wife’’.

 

   “As far as Hindus are concerned, marriage laws fall under the Hindu Marriage Act. So, unless the marriage is valid under the provisions of the HMA, those entering into such a marriage cannot describe themselves as a man and wife,’’ said the bench. Under the HMA, a second marriage between two Hindus is valid only if neither of them has a spouse who is alive. Any violation of this rule means that such a marriage is null and void, said the court, and no maintenance could be claimed.

 

   Interestingly, TOI in its April 28, 2010, edition, had reported about another bench of the HC, which had rejected another second wife’s maintenance claim, but directed her to approach the courts under the recently enacted Domestic Violence Act.

 

   Seema Patil married Nathuram (now 64) in 1983, when the latter was already married. After 17 years, the couple separated in December, 1999 and the next year, Nathuram moved the family court, seeking to declare his marriage with Seema null and void. Seema, in turn, filed a counter claim, alleging that Nathuram had deceived her by saying he was divorced. She also urged the court for alimony.

 

The family court rejected Nathuram’s plea to annul the marriage saying he wanted to take advantage of a wrong committed by him. But the court also restrained  Seema from visiting Nathuram’s home or office and dismissed her plea for maintenance. Seema then moved HC.

 

   A wife can approach the court seeking maintenance under three different laws — the Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act and the Criminal Procedure Code. When Seema’s lawyers cited a Delhi HC order awarding maintenance to a second wife, the Bombay HC said it did not agree with that verdict.

 

   “According to the law, a marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act is void ipso jure and the woman entering into such a marriage is not a wife within the meaning of either the HMA or CrPC. The expression, ‘wife’, used in both the statutes means only a ‘legally wed’ wife. The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act cannot be treated differently for the meaning to the word ‘wife’ used therein,’’ said the judges while dismissing her plea for maintenance. The court also said Seema seemed to have a sufficient source of living—service pension, retirement dues and also her pays from TV serials.



Learning

 4 Replies


(Guest)

Hemant, do you subscribe to following :-)

A. Sources of laws.

1. Laws do not lie in the pages of books.
2. Laws lie in the minds of men.
3. Pages of books are just alibi.

B. Laws in practice.

1. Facts and laws remaining the same interpretation can be anything as their lordships please.
2. Ignore the facts and laws and prevail the opinion and that is the law in the case in hand.
 

Hemant Agarwal (ha21@rediffmail.com Mumbai : 9820174108)     07 May 2010

D.Arun Kumar :
 

Thank you for your thought-provoking question. 
 

Apologies, but :

My uncle says :   LAW IS AN  "ASS"
And I've no reason whatsoever not to agree with him.
HOPE the above answers your question.


 

Laws are passed by the legislature,  where 90% of them are literally  "illiterate and arrogants",  as is evident from the fact that the same legislature witnesses  bribe money inside the lok-sabha,  goonda-giri inside the well of the house,  women's bill being snatched from the speaker, thus flushing down the decorum of the house, down the sewage line.

 

AS IT IS , courts have legalised  "gayism"  and  "live-in relationships" and what-nots, which is typically called as  "taking the law into ones own hand",  without referring the  issue of legality to the legislature,  who alone are empowered to create and modify laws.

 

Can law / judiciary be relied on ?
One judge interprets and gives one judgement pertaining to a law. 
Another judge contradicts the first judgement and interprets the law as per his own whims.
Yet another judge contradicts all the earlier judgements and interprets the law into a third dimension.

 

Keep Smiling .... Hemant Agarwal

Latika Singh (Legal Executive)     19 May 2010

WELLSAID....................

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     25 May 2010

I am the law.

A bench of SC says as far back as in 1984 that a nominee is only a trustee for other legal heirs and this law has been applied since then in all cases by LIC, banks, provident fund accumulations, dues from companies and government, in CHS. In the case of nomination made by a shareholder of a company, HC of Mumbai says that all that is not applicable to this case and the nominee is the owner.

A relative and a family are defined in 20 thousand ways in 100 thousand laws. Recently I read a judgement of the Kolkata High Court [Bhagwati Trading Company Ltd. vs Commissioner Of Income-Tax on 4/12/1974] which held that a daughter-in-law is not a RELATIVE for income tax purposes. It also held that brother's wife is also not a relative. The judgement was delivered by Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee who went on to become the CJI. The judgement also says: "It will be a strange thing to

say that sister-in-law or daughter-in-law would not be related to each other" but law being law it cannot be interpreted in any other way.

One HC does not agree with another. One Judge does not agree with another Judge of the same HC. What should a helpless citizen do? Run to the SC. This is what we call rule of law.


Leave a reply

Your are not logged in . Please login to post replies

Click here to Login / Register