HETRAM CHOUDHARY Vs. CHHITIYA BAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD .

(2.) THE respondent Smt. Chhitiya Bai @ Sitabai Choudhari has filed an application under Section 125, Cr.P.C. for grant of maintenance and stated that the marriage of the applicant and respondent was solemnized according to Hindu rites and customs prevalent in the Adivasi community. The respondent was earlier married with Kallu but taken divorce from Kallu and thereafter married with the applicant. The applicant is an employee of Colliery and getting salary of Rs.8,000/ - per month and further has income from the agriculture. He has kept another lady, therefore, she is living separately and entitled to get maintenance.

(3.) THE initial onus to prove the relationship is upon the respondent wife . Proof by wife that she has been treated as wife is sufficient. They lived together as husband and wife and were treated as such by the community. The law presumes in favour of marriage and against concubinage. Accordingly, continuous cohabitation of a man and a woman as husband and wife and their treatment as such for a number of years raise the presumption of marriage.