Second wife is ineligible for compensation where first marriage subsists and subsequent marriage remains legally unproven.

The appellant, claiming to be the second wife of the deceased Madan Sundar Yadav, challenged the award dated 07.12.2019 passed by the Seventh Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Raigarh, in Claim Case No. 46/2018

The deceased was legally married to Respondent No. 7 (Laxmi Yadav), who had left his company to marry another person without obtaining a formal divorce

The appellant contended that she lived with the deceased and was entitled to compensation alongside the deceased's children and parents

However, the appellant had participated as a non-applicant before the Claims Tribunal and had neither filed a claim for compensation nor proved the validity of her marriage during those proceedings

Whether the appellant, as the purported second wife, is entitled to compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act when the deceased's first marriage was still legally subsisting and the second marriage was not established?

Section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, regarding the right to appeal a claims tribunal award

The court further relied on the principles of matrimonial law and the Law of Evidence, establishing that a second marriage during the subsistence of a first marriage (without a valid legal divorce) lacks legal recognition for the purposes of inheritance or claim status, and that the burden of proof rests on the claimant to establish a legal relationship with the deceased

The court reasoned that since no legal divorce had occurred between the deceased and his first wife, Laxmi Yadav, the first marriage remained valid in the eyes of the law despite her departure

The court observed that the appellant failed to provide evidence to establish the validity of her own marriage to the deceased

The court emphasized the appellant’s procedural conduct; she remained a non-applicant before the lower Tribunal and failed to formally claim compensation or lead evidence to prove her status at the trial stage

Therefore, the court found that the Tribunal’s decision to exclude her from the compensation award was justified and not perverse to the record

The High Court found no merit in the appeal and dismissed it, thereby affirming the impugned award passed by the Seventh Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Raigarh