High Court of Punjab and Haryana granted permanent alimony to the ex-wife, in a nullified marriage. The marriage was legally nullified as the wife hide her previous marriage and claimed herself unmarried.
The bench of Justice RAKESH KUMAR JAIN and Justice HARNARESH SINGH GILL, last week ruled entitlement to the ex-wife for permanent alimony under Sec 25 of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
The marriage of the parties was solemnised on June, 2012 at Gurudwara in Amritsar as per Hindu Sikh Rites and rituals. The husband Sukhdev Singh was a widower while the wife entered into marriage with false claim of being unmarried. The couple has no child out of the said wedlock.
Then the husband filed a petition at Ld. trial court, alleging that “factum of earlier marriage was not disclosed to him at the time when their marriage was solemnized”.
The Ld. Trial court declared the marriage null and void, as they said as:
“the panchayti talaknama is not sustainable in the eyes of law and, therefore, at the time of marriage by the appellant with the respondent, she was already having a spouse”.
The bench observed that the petitioner women did not ask for permanent alimony before the Ld Trial Court, but she opted to appeal for permanent alimony as:
“in which the only prayer made by her is for grant of permanent alimony and not for setting aside the judgment and decree of the learned trial Court.”
The bench refers the Court in Chand Dhawan case which states:
“the expression used in the opening part of Section 25 enabling the ‘Court exercising jurisdiction under the Act’ ‘at the time of passing any decree or at any time subsequent thereto’ to grant alimony or maintenance cannot be restricted only to, as contended, decree of judicial separation under Section 10 or divorce under Section 13. When the legislature has used such wide expression as ‘at the time of passing of any decree,’ it encompasses within the expression all kinds of decrees such as restitution of conjugal rights under Section 9, judicial separation under Section 10, declaring marriage as null and void under Section 11, annulment of marriage as voidable under Section 12 and Divorce under Section 13.”
The bench the referred the decision of the Supreme Court in Ramesh Chandra case and found it appropriate for the case. The bench upholding the trial court order and said the appellant is entitled for the permanent alimony and asked parties to approach the Ld trial Court to determine the amount.
