INDER PAL KAUR Vs. TAJINDER PAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition arise out of an application under Section 24 and 26 of the Hindu Marriage , Act (here in after referred to as the Act) moved by the petitioner/wife in proceedings under Section 13 of the Act launched against her by her husband respondent here in. In her application she claimed Rs. 5000.00 towards litigation expenses and Rs. 1500 per month as maintenance amount for her and her child. On a consideration of the material available on the record, the learned Trial Court came to the conclusion that the respondent's total income was Rs. 2300.00 permonth. The Trial Court, therefore, fixed Rs. 300 per month as maintenance pendente lite to be payable to the wife, Rs. 150 per month to be payable to the minor child and Rs. 1500 as litigation expenses. The petitioner has come up in revision submitting that the impugned order has been passed illegally in as much as no reason has been stated as to how the Trial Court came to fix the maintenance as it had fixed and, in any case, it has arrived at the figure of the husband's income by ignoring vital facts.

(2.) In assessing the quantum of maintenance, the learned Trial Court was priamrily influnced by the salary of the husband. The learned counsel for the petitioner/wife, on the strength of the decision rendered in Santosh Kumari Vs. Kishan Kumar 1979 (Vol V) Page 60 HLR has asserted that the learned Trial Court has given no reason or basis for fixing the maintenance and litigation expenses and as such the impugned order is arbitrary and without the application of mind.

(3.) It cannot be questioned that, in principle in a case like this, the wife and her child are entitled during the pendency of the proceedings to an allowance for support and also to a lump grant towards her expenses in the proceedings. Here it is a provisional arrangement to enable her and her child to keep themselves alive till the final orders in the proceedings and also contest, if she chooses, the suit filed by her husband.