Mumbai: For the purpose of granting
maintenance to a neglected wife under Section 125 of Criminal
Procedure Code, no strict proof of marriage is necessary,
Bombay High Court recently held.
The verdict by Justice Abhay Oka might bolster the case
of the Maharashtra government, which had proposed to amend the
CrPC to extend benefit of maintenance to those women who could
not prove marriage legally.
In the present case, petitioner Suman married Nivrutti
Satav in 1981. A year later, according to her, Nivrutti
married another woman called Surekha.
Later, he began ill-treating Suman, and finally drove her
out of the house in 1991. Suman -- who has had a daughter by
him -- applied to magistrate`s court for maintenance.
Nivrutti denied that he was married to her. Court held
that she failed to prove marriage, and denied her maintenance.
She challenged it before High Court. In the judgement
last week, Justice Oka observed that "courts below proceeded
on erroneous footing that it was necessary for the woman to
strictly establish the marriage by establishing performance of
religious rites".
The judge observed that in her case, Sarpanch and Police
Patil of Phursungi (district Pune) had testified that Nivrutti
was living with her for seven to eight years.
Further, High Court said, that as per the Supreme Court`s
earlier rulings, "standard of proof of marriage" in cases
under Section 125 of CrPC is not as strict as in other cases.
The objective of CrPC provision was just to make
available to woman a "speedy remedy to obtain maintenance",
High Court said.
"Supreme Court has held that if the applicant in
application under Section 125 succeeds in showing that she had
lived together with the respondent as wife and husband, the
Court can presume that they are legally wedded spouses",
Justice Oka noted.
High Court then reversed finding of lower court, and
awarded her maintenance of Rs 500 per month, with arrears
since 1991.
In the CrPC amendment proposed by state government, a
woman who has lived as wife with a man can claim maintenance,
though she may not have undergone marriage rites.
But the proposal is yet make any headway, as opposition
as well as some members of ruling Congress-NCP alliance
alleged that government wanted to "legalise" live-in
relationships through this amendment.
Bureau Report
