NARAYANA MENON Vs. BHARATHI AMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an interesting case in which a police man stoutly swears that he married a Woman nine months pregnant without being aware of her condition and where a child which, according to its mother, was born to a person other than her husband and the paternity of which is denied by the said person is claimed by the husband to be his own. The Petitioner Bharathi Amma moved the District Magistrate, Ernakulam, under S.488 Criminal Procedure Code for grant of maintenance for her infant daughter Geetha from the counter petitioner Narayana Menon a Police Constable. Her case is that after separation from her prior husband one Narayana Pillai by whom she had had two children, she and the counter petitioner were living as man and wife during which time she conceived Geetha. A marriage ceremony was conducted between the counter petitioner and herself on 25-3-1958 and a month later on 26-4-1958 she gave birth to Geetha. A few months later the counter petitioner moved for the dissolution of his marriage with her and since then he has refused to contribute to the maintenance of the child.

(2.) The counter petitioner denied the paternity of the child. According to him at the time of his marriage to the petitioner he was unaware that she was pregnant. He also denied having had any physical relationship with the petitioner either before or after the marriage.

(3.) Aggrieved by the order granting maintenance passed by the learned Magistrate who found that in spite of the legally subsisting marriage with Narayana Pillai at the time the child was conceived and also in spite of Narayana Pillai's claim the was examined as a witness for the counter petitioner) that the child is his, it is the counter petitioner who begot Geetha, he has now approached this court in revision.