Revision as of 12:53, 8 February 2014

Households, shared

From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009

‘Right to share house can be enforced against husband’

New Delhi: Women fighting legal battles to re-enter the ‘‘shared household’’ can enforce their right to cohabit against estranged spouses and not against in-laws under the Domestic Violence Act, a court has said.

‘‘If the interpretation (that the Act provides right to share house with husband’s relatives) is accepted, all houses of the husband’s relatives will be shared households and the wife can well insist in living in them merely because she had stayed there with her husband for some time in the past. Such a view would lead to chaos and would be absurd,’’ additional sessions judge S K Sarvaria said.

The court, which rejected the plea of an estranged wife seeking re-entry into a house of her mother-in-law, cited a Supreme Court judgment on the issue. ‘‘Undoubtedly, when the husband has been living in a rented property somewhere else, wife cannot say that the property owned... by her mother-inlaw (even prior to her marriage) is the shared household and she should be allowed to re-enter such property,’’ it said.

‘‘The wife is only entitled to claim a right to residence in a shared household, and a ‘shared household’ would only mean the house belonging to or taken on rent by the husband, or the house belonging to the joint family of which the husband is a member,’’ it said.

It was hearing the appeal filed by a Delhi-based woman, who had challenged the order of a lower court by which she was restrained from entering the house owned by her mother-in-law. PTI

Second Wives: maintenance for, rights of

From the archives of The Times of India 2010

HC opens maintenance door to ‘second wife’

Shibu Thomas | TNN

Mumbai: A second wife has to battle not just stigma but also her ‘‘illegal’’ status under Indian laws. If the relationship sours, the laws say she has no right to a maintenance from her polygamous husband nor a share in property (though the children from the wedlock have inheritance rights). But the Bombay High Court, in a path-breaking ruling, has opened a small door for such women.

Justice A B Chaudhari has said second wives could approach courts under the Domestic Violence Act. The judge asked a Nagpur-based 45-year-old housewife, Manda Thaore, to move court under the 2005 law to seek maintenance, accommodation and other benefits from the man who married her 27 years ago.

Justice Chaudhari also directed the husband, Ramaji Thaore (59), to pay a compensation of Rs 15,000 to Manda to cover her legal costs so that she could prosecute him under the Domestic Violence Act.

‘‘To my mind, it is clear that the husband has treated Manda as if she was his wife (but it was his second marriage),’’ said Justice Chaudhari. ‘‘It is no doubt true that Ramaji had cheated Manda and had kept sexual relationships with her resulting in the birth of two children... despite holding that there had been close relationship between applicant and respondent and he treated her like wife and produced children, unfortunately, this court cannot help Manda for providing her maintenance,’’ said the judge, but went on to say that a new law could come to her aid.

‘‘This is a fit case for Manda to have a recourse to the provisions of the new beneficial act, the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, and proceed against her husband for claiming accommodation, maintenance.’’

Under the Indian system, a second wife has no legally enforceable rights unless the man has divorced his first wife. A wife can claim maintenance and alimony under the Hindu Marriage Act as well as the Criminal Procedure Code; she is also entitled to a share of the property. ‘‘The Supreme Court has said that the second marriage is a nullity and so a second wife has no right which is available only to a legally wedded wife,’’ said advocate Arfan Sait, an advocate who practises in the HC.

The DVA says that a woman can move court against a person with whom she is having ‘‘a domestic relationship within a shared household’’, seeking protection from abuse as well as maintenance and accommodation.