Punjab and Haryana High Court: Only legally wedded wife entitled to claim maintenance

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 6

A wife’s attempts to get maintenance allowance from her ex-husband during the pendency of her appeal against divorce even after getting remarried has failed to find favour with the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The Bench has made it clear that only a legally wedded wife was entitled to maintenance. A wife, who remarried, could not claim the same during the pendency of litigation. The ruling by the Bench of Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Sant Parkash came on an application by a woman under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, for monthly maintenance from the respondent-husband.

The Bench was told that their marriage was solemnised in March 2011, but no child was born out of the wedlock. The applicant-wife allegedly started maltreating and quarrelling with the respondent-husband and his parents. She also left the matrimonial home without her husband’s consent.

The applicant-wife also allegedly levelled false allegations against her husband and in-laws and extended threats to lodge a false case against them. As such, the husband filed a petition seeking divorce on the ground of cruelty and desertion. The plea was accepted and the decree of divorce was granted in his favour vide the judgment dated July 7, 2017. Aggrieved, the wife preferred the appeal before the High Court, which was pending adjudication.

Her counsel submitted that the applicant-wife was staying with her aged parents and was totally dependent upon them for her daily needs. The respondent-husband was, on the other hand, leading a luxurious life with all facilities, as he was in the Indian Army.

Responding to the contentions, the husband’s counsel submitted that the applicant-wife had remarried. The photographs of the remarriage obtained from social media were annexed along with the reply.

It was added that the ex-husband had also been acquitted in criminal proceedings initiated by the applicant-wife, vide the judgment dated January 27 passed by the Palwal District Judge. Since the applicant-wife had remarried, the question of granting maintenance to her did not arise.

The Bench asserted that Section 24 stipulated that the order to pay maintenance or litigation expenses could be passed in any proceedings under the Act, if it appeared to the court that either the wife or the husband did not have independent income sufficient for support.

“Only a legally wedded wife will be entitled to maintenance pendente lite (pending litigation). Since, the counsel for the applicant-wife has not been able to specifically contradict the factum of the second marriage of the applicant-wife, in our considered view, she has lost her valuable right of maintenance pendente lite,” the Bench concluded.