KULDIP KAUR Vs. SURINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have yet to come across a case of a wife wronged by her husband and a child wronged by his father who had to suffer also at the hands of the Court. For, while the Trial Magistrate has disposed of the matter in a very cursory manner taking a thoroughly untenable and unjust view, the High Court has rejected the Revisional Application summarily. Both the Courts have done so notwithstanding the fact that the point involved (whether detaining the husband in jail for failing to pay the arrears of maintenance would be tantamount to satisfaction of the order of maintenance passed in her favour even though the arrears of maintenance allowance remain unrecovered in fact) is not capable of being answered against the petitioner.

(2.) The Metropolitan Magistrate (Shri L. D. Malik) in his order dated July 4, 1981 recorded a clear finding that the husband was guilty of cruelty in the context of the demand for dowry. He observed:-

(3.) The respondent-husband was in arrears to the tune of Rs. 5090/-. The wife moved an application for execution of the order for maintenance in order to recover the arrears of maintenance. In the course of enforcement of the order of maintenance dated 17-1-1982 the husband was sentenced to suffer simple imprisonment for one month pursuant to the order dated 17-1-1982 of the Metropolitan Magistrate (Shri L D. Malik). The operative portion of the order reads as under:-