Maintenance rights of a deceived second claim upheld where husband concealed his subsisting first marriage.

Where a man suppresses his subsisting earlier marriage and induces a second relationship, the woman may be treated as a wife for maintenance under Section 125 CrPC. The Court applied a purposive, social-justice oriented construction of the term "wife" and held that a person cannot defeat a maintenance claim by taking advantage of his own wrong. By distinguishing cases where the woman entered the marriage with full knowledge of the first subsisting marriage, the Court upheld the maintainability of the claim on the basis of deception and proved marriage and cohabitation.

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Issues: Whether a woman who entered into a marriage with a man whose earlier marriage was subsisting, when the man had suppressed that fact, can be treated as the wife for the purpose of maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Analysis: The claim for maintenance was founded on a proved marriage and cohabitation, but the husband relied on the rule that a second marriage during the subsistence of a first valid marriage is void and that only a legally wedded wife can claim maintenance under Section 125. The Court distinguished earlier decisions denying maintenance where the woman married with full knowledge of the subsisting first marriage. It held that where the man deceives the woman by suppressing the earlier marriage and induces the relationship, he cannot be permitted to defeat the maintenance claim by taking advantage of his own wrong. The provision was construed purposively as a measure of social justice, and the expression "wife" was given a construction that advances the remedial object of the statute.

Conclusion: For the purpose of Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the woman was entitled to be treated as the wife and her maintenance claim was maintainable.

Ratio Decidendi: A woman induced into a second marriage by suppression of an existing subsisting marriage may be treated as the wife for maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, because a party cannot take advantage of his own wrong and the provision must be construed purposively to advance social justice.

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