MUMBAI, July 20 -- The Bombay High Court has denied maintenance to a woman whose marriage was declared void after she concealed her subsisting first marriage, holding that a person who acts deceitfully cannot invoke the beneficial provisions of the law to claim maintenance. A single-judge bench of Justice M.M. Sathaye dismissed the woman's petition challenging a sessions court order that denied her maintenance while continuing maintenance for her son. The woman had approached a magistrate's court in 2010, alleging that her husband had subjected her to physical and mental harassment, demanded money and abandoned her and their child soon after the marriage. She sought monthly maintenance of Rs.15,000 each for herself and her son, claiming that her husband owned agricultural land and earned income from a godown. The husband argued that the woman had concealed her earlier marriage and had married him without divorcing her first husband. Since the marriage had subsequently been declared null and void, he contended that she was not entitled to maintenance. He, however, did not dispute the child's claim. In 2015, the magistrate directed the husband to pay Rs.2,000 a month to the woman and Rs.1,000 to the child. The sessions court later set aside the maintenance awarded to the woman while retaining the amount granted to the child. Before the high court, the woman argued that she was the legally wedded wife and, being unable to support herself, was entitled to maintenance. The husband maintained that the annulment meant she did not qualify as a "wife" under law. The court observed that the term "wife" has been interpreted broadly to include women in long-term relationships resembling marriage and that "strict proof of marriage should not be a precondition for maintenance." However, it held that the present case stood on a different footing as the couple had lived together for barely four months and the woman had concealed her existing marriage. Holding that the concealment vitiated her claim, the court upheld the denial of maintenance to the woman and dismissed her petition....