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The Hindu Married Women's Right to Separate Residence and Maintenance Act, 1946

( ACT NO. XIX OF 1946 )

Grounds for claiming separate residence and maintenance
2. Notwithstanding any custom or law to the contrary a Hindu married woman shall be entitled to separate residence and maintenance from her husband on one or more of the following grounds, namely,-
 
 
 
 
(1) if he is suffering from any loathsome disease not contracted from her;
 
 
 
 
(2) if he is guilty of such cruelty towards her as renders it unsafe or undesirable for her to live with him;
 
 
 
 
(3) if he is guilty of desertion, that is to say, of abandoning her without her consent or against her wish;
 
 
 
 
(4) if he marries again;
 
 
 
 
(5) if he ceases to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion;
 
 
(6) if he keeps a concubine in the house or habitually resides with a concubine;
 
 
 
 
(7) for any other justifiable cause:
 
 
 
 
Provided that a Hindu married woman shall not be entitled to separate residence and maintenance from her husband if she is unchaste or ceases to be a Hindu by change to another religion or fails without sufficient cause to comply with a decree of a competent Court for the restitution of conjugal rights.

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Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs