Sexual morality is an issue that surfaces often when a woman claims her right to subsistence and maintenance. The stipulation of monogamy under the Hindu Marriage Act entitles only the woman in a ‘legally valid marriage’ to claim maintenance. Hence proof of a valid Hindu Marriage becomes mandatory prior to claiming rights of maintenance. Further under both the Hindu Marriage Act and under S.125 of the Criminal Procedure Code a woman living in adultery is not entitled to claim maintenance.
Issues of validity of marriage can surface even after the death of the husband while claiming end of service benefits of succession rights.

These stipulation provides the armour for husbands to entangle women in vicious and dilatory litigation over a pittance of maintenance by advancing baseless allegations of adultery, bigamy and informal alliance Denying paternity and demanding DNA tests become further means of humiliating the woman. The layered and multiple contexts through which sexual morality surfaces, as per the norms of patriarchy serves only one end - to defeat women’s economic rights. It is a clear case of ‘heads I win and tails you lose’. It is irrelevant whether the woman has been adulterous or the man bigamous, as far as the woman is concerned, the purpose for which sexual morality is fore grounded is only one, to defeat her claim to maintenance and humiliate her during court proceedings. We have had to defend the rights of many woman who do not fit into the model of a ‘virtuous’ woman as per the dictates of patriarchy and ensure their dignity and economic rights.