HC allows plea of Dalit woman for maintenance

Coming to aide of a Dalit woman, who lived with a man under a "contract marriage" registration deed, Madurai Bench of the Madras High has set aside the order of a Judicial Magistrate rejecting her claim for maintenance.
Allowing her petition, Justice P N Prakash remanded the case of P Eswari back to the Magistrate Court in Uthamapalayam and directed it to fix the quantum of maintenance within six months.
The petitioner was living with A Pandian, an upper caste man, since 1991 and got the marriage contract deed registered eight years later. Later, he married another woman.
The Petitioner, who produced the registered document, said her marriage was registered as a contract as per which they should live together till their lifetime and if any of them decided to part, the other person should pay Rs.40,000 to the party who wanted to part.

The magistrate dismissed the Petitioner's plea for maintenance on the ground that she had not proved the marriage, though she produced the marriage contract document.
Justice P N Prakash said the petitioner's marriage contract registration document was a strange one.It had been registered by a Sub-Registrar in 1999 before the Supreme Court issued a direction to all registrars and sub-registrars in 2008 not to register any marriage agreement without following mandatory provisions of the laws governing solemnisation of marriage.
The Supreme Court had held that if a second wife had been duped into marriage, she would be entitled for maintenance. The magistrate failed to properly appreciate the evidence on record adduced by the petitioner and apply the apex court verdict to this case, the Judge observed.

The Judicial Magistrate had held that the petitioner did not prove factum of marriage (as per Hindu law) and she was not entitled for maintenance.