Hi All,
I am posting this question over this forum, with an expectation to get appropriate suggestions in order to find a lawyer and proceed further in family court.
To begin with, my father who had legally married my mother and together they both gave birth to me and my elder sister. As per my knowledge, after my birth – my father had an illicit relationship with another woman which resulted to a child (boy) took birth. Under these circumstances, my father had married to other woman, without giving any knowledge to my mother; neither had he approached to any court to obtain divorce from my mother. Eventually, my father and other woman together gave birth to their second child (boy). After several years, my mother had discovered that, my father had already married to another woman and also had grown up children’s. This event, led to regular quarrels, dispute in every family matters, during which my father had decided to live with either one family and he had chosen to live along with other woman. However, he frequently visited us, but never took any responsibilities of us. Since, my mother and my father are both working govt employees; they together invested all their savings in buying plots and agricultural lands. Also, my father was very keen in investing stocks. But my father, never mentioned anywhere about my mother names, in any legal documents, however at some places – he had mentioned other woman’s name as his legal wife.
Now, that my father had passed away a few years ago and other woman and her children’s are legally, threatening us, as every property belongs to my father belongs to them. They are even trying to acquire every belonging (plots, houses) which we had for many years under our authority.
We would like to approach family court, but before that – here I am trying to gain some knowledge regarding to law and understanding of situation from Hindu Marriage Act perspective?
Does a deceased person still be considered under IPC Section 494? Does my mother will get any help from IPC Section 498-A( though I have kept matter short above, but still … )?
