The Allahabad High Court has once again said that Second application seeking maintenance under section 125 CrPC is maintainable even after the first application is dismissed. if circumstances have changed. After change in circumstances the person entitled to maintenance can file a second application seeking maintenance. The court made the above observation while dismissing the petition filed by a person named Shyam Bahadur Singh. Shyam Bahadur Singh filed a petition in the High Court challenging the lower court's order that he should pay ₹ 1500 per month as maintenance to his first wife. Shyam Bahadur Singh's contention was that after the first application seeking maintenance has been dismissed, the wife has no right to file a second application seeking maintenance. Since filing of second application making similar demand is prohibited as per law. Justice Jyotsna Sharma's bench while hearing the matter said that Filing of second application with similar demand is prohibited by law when the first application with similar demand has been dismissed by the court.But in the changed circumstances the person can file a second application making the same demand. The law does not bar the filing of a second application in the changed circumstances. The court observed that there may be instances where a person may be able to maintain himself for some time but thereafter loses his resources due to changed circumstances. In such cases there is a fresh right to claim maintenance .Once the application for maintenance is rejected, if thereafter the right to claim maintenance is stopped, it will defeat the very purpose of section 125 of CrPC. The court made the above observations while upholding the January 2004 order of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, North Eastern Railway, Banda.wherein the second application filed by a woman under section 125 CrPC was allowed. As per the case the petitioner's wife filed an application seeking maintenance which was dismissed by the court in 1995. Thereafter, the petitioner remarried and started living with the second wife. After which the first wife filed a second application in 2003 seeking maintenance under section 125 of the CrPC. The applicant contended that circumstances had changed and the husband had remarried. In view of the change in circumstances, the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Banda accepted the second application for maintenance. In 2004, the magistrate's court ordered the husband to pay Rs 1500 per month as maintenance to his first wife. The husband challenged the Magistrate's order through a criminal revision petition which was dismissed by the Court of Additional District Judge Banda.After which the husband moved the High Court.
