The Kerala High Court recently rejected a 68-year-old woman’s claim that she was the legally wedded wife of a 75-year-old man and denied her maintenance plea, finding that she had signed as a witness to a marriage certificate evidencing the man’s wedding to her younger sister and yet took no steps to assert her own marital status for the next 23 years.
Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Preeta A K noted that while the woman claimed she had married the man in 1974 and had three children through the relationship, she did not approach any court seeking recognition of that marriage until 2017.
“There is still no explanation as to why she did not choose to seek such a declaration after 11.3.1994, the date of the marriage certificate certifying the marriage of the respondent with her younger sister on 7.4.1984. We say so because it has come out in evidence that the appellant (woman) had signed as a witness to the marriage certificate dated 11.3.1994, and at least on that day, she ought to have realised that her alleged marital relationship with the respondent had come under threat,” the June 9 order read.
Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Preeta A K said the burden of proving the existence of a relationship is on the person claiming its existence.
The Kerala High Court was hearing an appeal challenging a family court order that had refused to declare the woman the legally wedded wife of the man and had consequently rejected her claim for maintenance.
‘Married me, then wedded sister’
- The woman claimed that she got married to the said man in May 1975 as per the rites and ceremonies of the Hindu Ezhava community.
- According to her, the marriage was witnessed by invitees named in the original petition, and after the marriage, she and her alleged husband were living together as husband and wife.
- She also stated that a daughter and two sons were born out of this wedlock. However, her youngest son committed suicide in 2016. The elder daughter and the younger son are both stated to be married.
- During the subsistence of her marriage, the woman claimed that her estranged husband was enamoured by the beauty of her younger sister and deserted her for carrying on a life with her sister in the Gulf for about 36 years.
- It was added that her husband and her younger sister returned to their native place and continued to live there.
- According to the woman, after deserting her, the estranged husband did not care to maintain either her or her children and she was treated cruelly.
- She claimed that it was because of the mental and physical harassment by the estranged husband and his second wife that her son killed himself in 2016.
- Subsequently, a crime was registered by the woman against her estranged husband and his alleged second wife.
- However, the husband denied that he was the father of any of the children as claimed by the woman. He further maintained that he had married the woman’s younger sister, and in that marriage, he had a daughter, and that after his marriage, he had left for the Gulf along with her, and there was no question of deserting the woman with whom he did not have any marital relationship.
- The family court, in its order, held that the woman was not entitled to get a declaration as the legally wedded wife of the said man.
‘Not legally wedded wife’
The high court noted that the woman herself said that the man had been living with her younger sister in the Gulf for about 36 years after his marriage with her. This admission by the woman, the court noted, would also militate against her claim that she was legally wedded to the man, and that he had in fact deserted her to marry the younger sister.
The court also noted that the conduct of the woman itself, without anything more, establishes the falsity of her claim that she is the legally wedded wife of the said man.
The court pointed out that the burden of proving the existence of a fact or a relationship is that of the person alleging its existence. It was added that in matrimonial matters, that burden is to be discharged on the threshold of the balance of probabilities.
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“While determining whether that threshold has been crossed, the court must keep in mind that a prudent man faced with conflicting probabilities concerning a fact situation will act on the supposition that the fact exists if, on weighing the various probabilities, he finds that the preponderance is in favour of the existence of the particular fact,” the court added.
Consequently, finding no merit in the appeal, the Kerala High Court dismissed the appeal filed by the woman.
Arguments
Appearing for the woman, advocate Haridas P argued that the trial court erred in failing to appreciate the documentary evidence led in the instant case, in which the status of the man as the ‘husband’ of his client and as the ‘father’ of her children was clearly recorded.
The said documents were, like the passport of the woman, her Aadhaar card, her election ID card, ration card, passports of her children, abstract of the school admission registers of her children and conveyance documents in which the man was described as the father of her children.
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On the other hand, the man’s counsel, advocate Anil Kumar, submitted that among the documents produced was a March 1994 marriage certificate, which evidenced the marriage between the man and the woman’s younger sister, in which the woman had signed as a witness.
It was added that this crucial fact was sufficient to dislodge the presumption of amarriage of the man withthe woman.
