MAHARAJAH’S APPEAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 November 1931, Page 8

MAHARAJAH’S APPEAL

INVALIDITY OF MARRIAGE. LONDON. October 19. A claim that Ills wife-’s divorce in New South Wal ~i in 1906 from an American actor, George Stillwell, whom she married in Capetown in 1903, was invalid because tho latter was not domiciled there was the chief point of the Maharajah of Tikari’s appeal to the Privy Council agailist the Maharanee’s claim for an annt(al allowance of 15,000 rupees. She was an Australian actress named Thompson but after her divorce in Sydney professed Hinduism, and adopted the name of Sita Devi. She married the Maharajah of Tikari in Lucknow. In 1917 he executed a deed granting Sita and her heirs an annuity in perpetuity. Payments were stopped in 1921 on account of her alleged infidelity. The Maharajah pleaded at an Indian trial in 1923 that his wife’s divorce was fraudulent and collusive. A Judge upheld the invalidity of tho divorce, and, therefore, the marriage of the Maharajah was declared invalid. The Indian High Court, however, decided in favour of Sita, who was not represented at to-day's appeal, at which judgment was reserved.