Supreme Court to examine whether alimony can be granted when marriage is declared void

The Supreme Court is slated to examine whether alimony under Sections 24 and 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA) can be granted in cases where the marriage has been declared void [Sukhdev Singh v. Sukhbir Kaur]..Taking note of the series of conflicting judgments on the said issue, a Division Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice PB Varale referred the matter to a larger bench.The Court directed the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for appropriate orders."Learned counsel appearing for the parties state at the Bar that these matters need to be considered by a three-Judge Bench combination as there are conflicting views on the applicability of Sections 24 and 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 whether alimony can be granted where marriage has been declared void ... Accordingly, let the papers be placed before Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India for passing appropriate orders," the Court ordered..Section 24, HMA provides for interim maintenance during pending litigation or proceedings under HMA between the husband and wife. Section 25 HMA provides for permanent alimony and maintenance on an application made by a spouse.Furthermore, Section 11 of HMA provides that any marriage solemnised under the HMA shall be declared null and void if there is bigamy involved, if the parties are in a prohibited relationship or if they are sapindas to each other, as provided under Section 5, HMA..The Court was informed that there are conflicting decisions on the question of whether alimony can be granted if the marriage itself is found to be void.The decisions which allowed for alimony in such cases are:Yamunabai Anantrao Adhav v. Anantrao Shivram Adhav & Another, (1988) 1 SCC 530 Abbayolla Reddy v. Padmamma, AIR 1999 AP 19 Navdeep Kaur v. Dilraj Singh, (2003) 1 HLR 100 Bhausaheb @ Sandhu S/o Raguji Magar v. Leelabai W/o Bhausaheb Magar, (2004) AIR Bom. 283(FB) Savitaben Somabhai Bhatiya v. State of Gujarat & Others, (2005) 3 SCC 636.The decisions in which it was held that alimony should not be ordered in such cases are:Chand Dhawan v. Jawaharlal Dhawan, (1993) 3 SCC 406 Rameshchandra Rampratapji Daga v. Rameshwari Rameshchandra Daga, (2005) 2 SCC 33.This issue is now slated to be settled by a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court..Advocates Rajesh Aggarwal, Mridul Aggarwal, Akash Karanwal, Shubham Chandel and Amrender Ray, appeared for the appellant.Senior Advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, advocates Naresh Kumar, Neeleshwar Pavani and Shaurya Mishra, appeared for the respondent..[Read Order]