A Delhi court has denied maintenance to a woman under the Domestic Violence Act, saying that she had suppressed the fact from her husband that she was already married to another man at the time of marriage.
The court also dismissed her plea that her husband was aware of her earlier marriage as a friend of his brother knew about it. The woman had solemnised the second marriage within 23 days of the first one. The court also noted that she took a false plea that her first husband had forced her to marry. The records proved that she had given her consent to the wedding, knowingly and consciously, and the priest who had presided over it also testified to this effect.
The woman in her complaint alleged that her second husband had married her falsely claiming that he was a doctor whereas he was just a compounder. She also alleged that he used to beat and torture her.
A Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) court had granted her a maintenance of Rs.4,000 per month, dismissing the plea of her husband.
Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain allowed the appeal against the MM court order by Raj Kumar, the second husband of the woman, saying that she could enter into the second wedlock without getting her first marriage annulled as per the Hindu Marriage Act.
“Valid marriage, in the context of Hindu Marriage, would be one which fulfils the conditions prescribed under Section 5 of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. One such condition is that ‘neither of the party has a spouse living at the time of the marriage’,” Mr. Jain said.
