Legal Status of Second Wife under the Hindu Law
Hindu law considers marriage as a sacred union. It is a divine bond that death can also not separate. It exists even after death, in every next life to come. The man and women are considered as complete with each other half without the other.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Legal Validity of the Second Marriage under Hindu Law
- Maintenance to Second wife
- Conditions that entitle Second wife to claim Maintenance
- Rights of Second wife in Husband’s Property
- Pensionary rights of Second Wife
- Conditions in which Second Marriage becomes Legal
- Punishment for Bigamy
- Case Laws
- Badshah v. Urmila Godse
- Suseela v. The Superintendent of Police
- Chanda Bharati v. The State of Maharashtra
- Conclusion
The bedrock of a civilized society lies in marriage. In Hindu law, marriage is a divine union of two souls. Despite this, instances of Hindu men marrying another woman without divorcing their first wives are on the rise. In the words of M.C. Josephine, Chairman of Kerala’s Women’s Commission, more cases of men remarrying without giving divorce to their first wife are filed in the district. But this scenario is at an increasing pace all over India.
This raises an important question of the status of the second wife in Hindu law. Is her marriage valid under Hindu law? Is she allowed to get maintenance? Will she have any right to her husband’s property? Will she get a share in the family pension after her husband’s death?
The article consists of the answers to all these questions.
Status of the Second Wife in Hindu Law
i). Legal validity of the second marriage under Hindu law
The divinity of Hindu law does not recognize solemnization of marriage with a second woman in the existence of the first. Under Section 11 of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (hereafter referred to as Act), the second marriage is null and void. One of the conditions for marriage under Section 5(i) of the Act is that both the parties should not have any spouse living when the marriage solemnizes.
In Shiromani Jain v. Ashok Kumar Jain and others, the Apex court held that no spouse is allowed to commit bigamy. The court further stated that the marriage of the respondent with his second wife is null and void.
ii). Maintenance to Second Wife
Section 25 of the Act provides for the maintenance of a spouse. The section in NO way provides for maintenance to a second wife. But the courts in series of cases are now giving a broad interpretation to the section. Thus now, subject to certain conditions, the court allowed maintenance to the second wife.
The conditions in which the court ordered maintenance to the second wife are given below-
Conditions that entitle the Second wife to claim Maintenance-
a. Concealment of first marriage from the second wife allows her to claim maintenance
In the case of Badshah v. Urmila Godse, the respondent solemnized marriage with the petitioner, who was already married. But the fact of his first marriage was not told by him to her. She came to know about it when she was already pregnant with his child. Later clashes broke between both of them and the petitioner started to ignore her. Thus, the respondent left him and came to her parent’s house where she gave birth to their child. Then, she filed a maintenance petition in court. The petition was filed under Section 125 of The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.
The petitioner’s counsel stated that she was the second wife of the petitioner. Thus, she is not entitled to any maintenance from him. But the court took a historic stand in the case. It said a man who conceals the facts of his first marriage from a second wife cannot deny giving maintenance to the second wife. The man cannot escape from giving maintenance to the Respondent by simply stating his second marriage as void.
The Petitioner deliberately concealed the fact of his first marriage from the Respondent. Thus, he cannot take the advantage of his own wrong. Therefore, the court ordered the Petitioner to provide the Respondent with maintenance, despite her being a second wife.
But it is important to understand why the court ordered maintenance in the instant case to the wife. The reason is that the Respondent was unaware of the petitioner’s first marriage. Had she been aware of her husband’s first marriage, then probably she would not have married him. So, denying her maintenance will aggravate the problems of her life.
So, an observation can be drawn that, a woman marrying a man with knowledge of he being already married, will disentitle her to take the advantage of the above stated judgement.
If a woman being aware of his first marriage, still marries him, then she will have to bear the consequences of it. Her marriage will be null and void. Thus, she will be debarred from taking any advantages of maintenance, share in husband’s property, pension etc.
b. Maintenance under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act
In case of the Ramaji Thaore, the court laid a historic judgement. The court held that, though the Act does not provide for maintenance to a second wife, but now she can approach under Protection of women from Domestic Violence Act to claim maintenance and accommodation from the husband. The woman can take recourse of this beneficial Act to also claim other benefits.
Thus, now despite being a second wife, the woman has the right to claim maintenance. The judgement has opened a door for a woman not getting legal recourse due to being a second wife.
iii. Rights of the Second wife in Husband’s Property
Hindu law does not recognize second marriage as valid. Thus, the second wife is also not considered as a wife.
Thus, there are no rights given to a second wife in the property of her husband.
iv. Pensionary Rights of Second wife
In the case of S. Suseela v. The Superintendent of Police, the Petitioner was the second wife of Stanley, a Head Constable. Later disputes broke between Stanley and his first wife. Thus, they both started to live separately without taking divorce. During the subsistence of the first marriage, Stanley married the Petitioner. Later, the first wife filed a divorce petition, which was granted to her.
After the retirement of Stanley, he wanted to name Petitioner (second wife) as his nominee for the family pension. But the same got rejected by the accountant general. Thus, the Petitioner filed a Petition in the High court.
Justice Hariparanthamam said though Petitioner’s marriage is not valid, she lived with her husband till his death. Moreover, the first wife’s divorce petition was also granted. Thus, in view, the accountant general has failed to take the entire facts into consideration. Therefore, his order is quashed. He then directed the authorities to pay Stanley’s pension to his second wife (Petitioner).
Thus, in the instant case, pension was given to the second wife though the marriage was illegal.
In the case of Chanda Bharati v. The State of Maharashtra, the woman married a Hindu man, who already had a first wife. The Petitioner though the second wife claimed a family pension after the death of her husband. The Court said that showing sympathy to second wife by allowing family pension to her, will be depriving for a legally wedded first wife, who has a right on the full pension of her deceased husband.
Conditions in which Second Marriage becomes Legal –
i). Wife unaware about first marriage
If a woman marries a man without knowledge of his ongoing first marriage, she will be treated as a legally wedded wife.
ii. Spouse unheard for Seven years
If a person remains unheard of for seven years by the people who would have heard of him, then as per law such person is considered dead.
Thus, if a person’s spouse remains unheard of for seven years, then the person can marry again and the second marriage will be considered legal.
Punishment for Bigamy
Section 17 of the Act makes a marriage void, if any of the party is married on the date of second marriage. The Act provides for the punishment for the offence under the following sections-
i). Section 494 of The Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 494 of The Indian Penal Code provides punishment for Bigamy. Any spouse committing bigamy is punished with a fine and imprisonment which can extend to 7 years.
ii). Section 495 of The Indian Penal Code
Section 495 of The Indian Penal Code recognizes concealment of former existing marriage from the person with whom he/she subsequently marries as a fraud. The person who will commit this is liable to imprisonment which can extend till 10 years and is also liable for a fine.
Conclusion
A second wife lives every day as a battle in society. Society harasses her by giving her a tag of the second wife. There is no socio-legal status given her and her marriage. The pain remains with her for her entire life. The law does not provide any provisions in favour of a second wife. But the liberalized approach of judiciary may help her to claim maintenance.
Silence of laws in her benefit makes her fate much dependent upon judicial interpretations. Increasing cases of bigamy, are making the life of second wives miserable. Thus, time urgently requires the legislature to make more strict laws for punishing bigamy.
The Legislature should also enact clear provisions of protections in their favour, to provide them with some relief.