Confirming a lower court's order, which granted maintenance to a woman 46 years after her marriage, the Bombay high court has said that if the husband marries another woman, the wife has the right to live apart and seek maintenance.
Dwarkabai, who married Gulabrao Ingole in 1961, approached the magistrate's court at Wardha in 2004, seeking maintenance of Rs1,500 from her husband.
Gulabrao said that she had left within three days of the marriage, and never lived with him thereafter. They divorced by mutual consent according to the custom of their community in 1965, he contended.
However, Dwarkabai denied that there was a divorce. She also alleged that the husband had another wife. The magistrate's court rejected her plea then. But in 2007, the sessions court reversed the decision and ordered the husband to pay her maintenance. He filed an appeal in the high court.
In the judgement last week, Justice SS Shinde of the Nagpur bench of the high court noted that the husband never proved that there was a legal divorce. The court held: “There was no legal divorce. The customary divorce has not been proved by the applicant by way of bringing any evidence on record about any such custom.”It further said, “If the husband is remarried and living with another woman, that entitles the wife to live separately.”
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