Kochi: The Kerala High Court stated that a Muslim husband has no right to refuse maintenance to his first wife by citing financial obligations toward a second wife. The ruling came while hearing revision petitions filed by a man who challenged a family court order that had directed him to provide maintenance.
The husband argued that he had no employment and lacked resources to support his first wife. He claimed she earned from a beauty parlour and that she left the marriage without valid reason in 2015. He also stated that their son was already supporting her. He told the court that his responsibility toward his second wife prevented him from paying maintenance.
Justice Kauser Edappagath rejected these arguments. The court said a Muslim husband does not possess an inherent right to marry more than one woman. It noted that Muslim law treats monogamy as the rule. It treats polygamy as an exception allowed only under exceptional circumstances. The court said equality in treatment of all wives includes equal maintenance.
The court stated that a husband who enters a second marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage cannot refuse or reduce maintenance to the first wife. It added that the legal right of a wife to receive maintenance is independent of support she might receive from her children.
The High Court also observed that the first wife had valid grounds to live separately. It said a second marriage without the consent of the first wife is a sufficient reason for her to separate and still claim maintenance.
