MUKHTIAR Vs. GUGUN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Marriage, it is said, is like twirling a baton, or turning hard springs or eating with chopsticks. It looks easy until one tries it. The parties to the petition tried many decades back and failed. Now in their seventies, they are fighting in Court over their failures.

(2.) More than a decade ago, finding that her husband, the respondent before me, was not even providing for her maintenance, the petitioner moved a petition under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, on September 19, 1984, the parties arrived at a compromise with regard to the demands of the petitioner and moved ajoint petition before the Metropolitan Magistrate containing the terms of settlement. It ran as under :

(3.) In August, 1993 the petitioner applied under Section 127 of the Code for modification of the terms of compromise. She prayed for an order granting maintenance at the rate of Rs. 500.00 per month. The husband, as would have been expected of him, contested the petition. The plea taken was that the petition under Section 125 having been dismissed and there being no order of maintenance, there could be no order under Section 127. The learned Metropolitan Magistrate, though good enough to record the objection, allowed the petition and fixed maintenance at Rs. 500.00 per month, but without, in any way, dealing with the objection.