NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Wednesday ruled that a spouse involved in a void marriage like bigamy is also entitled to seek permanent alimony and maintenance from his or her partner under the Hindu Marriage Act.
In view of contradictory judgments delivered on the issue of maintenance of spouse in cases of void marriage, a three-judge bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih passed the judgment and held that void marriages also come under the ambit of Sections 24 and 25 of Hindu Marriage Act which talks about maintenance and alimony.
The marriages are void under 1995 Act: (1) If one or both the parties to the marriage have a spouse living at the time of marriage; (2) The parties to the marriage are within the degrees of prohibited relationship; and (3) The parties are sapindas of each other, unless the custom or usage governing each of them permits of a marriage between the two. A sapinda relationship is based on a common ancestor within three generations on the mother’s side and five generations on the father’s side.
“A spouse whose marriage has been declared void under Section 11 of 1955 Act is entitled to seek permanent alimony or maintenance from the other spouse by invoking Section 25 of the Act. Whether such a relief of permanent alimony can be granted or not always depends on facts of each case and the conduct of the parties. The grant of relief under Section 25 is always discretionary,” SC said. It held that maintenance could also be granted during litigation.
SC passed the order on a plea filed by a man, who submitted that there may be cases where a wife may be responsible for concealing her first marriage and induce the husband to marry. But the bench said the entitlement under Section 25 does not depend on whether the bigamous marriage is moral or immoral.
SC took exception to Bombay HC full bench order for using objectionable terms for women involved in void marriage. “…the full bench has coined the term illegitimate wife. Calling the wife of a marriage declared as void as an illegitimate wife is very inappropriate. It affects the dignity of the concerned woman.”