India, July 17 -- The Delhi High Court has held that a husband is legally obligated to maintain his wife, even if it is her second marriage.

In her ruling delivered on Tuesday, justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said that Domestic Violence Act makes no distinction between a first and subsequent marriage when it comes to entitlement to maintenance.

The verdict was delivered in a plea filed by the husband against a family court's order directing him to pay an enhanced maintenance of Rs.1 lakh to his wife.

In his plea, the husband had asserted that the woman was not entitled to maintenance since it was her second marriage, and that she had voluntarily abandoned him despite him accepting her along with her two sons from her first marriage.

On t...