The court observed while confirming an order of a family court directing payment of ₹1 lakh as maintenance to a woman who owned a flat worth ₹1.7 crore and ₹1.5 lakh to her child.
Chennai: Owning properties worth several crores and luxury cars does not deny a woman lawful maintenance from her estranged partner, Madras high court has said.
Pointing out that the woman has alleged that the petitioner suppressed the existence of a legal marriage by stating that he was divorced, the court said, “in such circumstances, the petitioner ought to have established that he never made such a representation and that the earlier marriage is subsisting. “Though the Supreme Court had held that a second wife, whose marriage is void on account of the existence of an earlier legal marriage, is not entitled to maintenance, the apex court had also held that the burden is on the husband to establish that the earlier marriage was in subsistence,” the court said. The findings of the family court, which is based on the evidence, cannot be faulted, the court said.
Justice Sunder Mohan passed the order while dismissing revision petition moved by the woman’s partner challenging the family court order. The petitioner has not let in evidence to counter the evidence let in by the woman on this aspect. But the evidence reveals that after the child’s birth, the woman did not have a regular source of income. No evidence to the contrary has been let in by the petitioner.