The family court has refused to grant maintenance to a woman who married a second time within 13 days of her first marriage, and later went to stay with her first husband.
Principal judge Laxmi Rao rejected the application for maintenance filed by the woman observing: "This forum cannot be used to knock out monies from an innocent person, who was said to be unaware of the petitioner having got married to Mahesh (name changed) 13 days before she married the respondent. I am, therefore, not inclined to allow her application for interim maintenance as well litigation cost."
The woman had filed the petition seeking divorce from the second husband and sought maintenance of Rs 5,000 per month from him. She had also sought litigation cost of Rs 20,000.
She has been staying separately from the second husband since April 19, 2012. She claimed she was from a poor family and didn't have a permanent job either. She earns Rs 100 a day doing petty jobs, she said.
Her advocate, Nilam Pawar, argued that the second husband was working and earned Rs 10,000 a month and had no dependents.
PS Mishra, advocate of the second husband, countered saying the contentions in the divorce petition and maintenance application were absolutely false, fabricated and far from the truth. She has tried to create false sympathy and has suppressed the truth, he said.
Mishra argued that the woman had already been married to one Mahesh (on Feb 13, 2012) before she married the respondent. She had concealed this fact before her marriage to the respondent on Feb 26, 2012.
Opposing the application for maintenance, Mishra said the woman was now staying with her first husband and hence it was his duty to take care of her. "She has no legal or moral right to claim money or maintenance from the respondent. Her hands are not clean and she has suppressed truth," argued Mishra.
To support his claims, the second husband submitted documents he had acquired under RTI, which contains missing complaint lodged by her father on Feb 14, 2012 stating that she had left home the previous day.
Further, there are statements recorded by the police as well as an affidavit sworn by the petitioner as well as her former husband before a Notary Public at Raigad district from which it can be seen that she had got married to the said Mahesh on Feb 13, 2012.
Neither the woman nor her advocate submitted any rebuttal.
The judge said she was not inclined to grant her demands for two reasons—one, she was earning, and two, "her conduct in marrying two persons within 13 days."
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