K P PATHUMMA Vs. T ABDULLA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The marriage of Abdulla with Pathumma took place in the year 1968. Some time thereafter the husband left for Dubai where he had obtained a job. Children were born to the couple. There is no controversy between the parties about the legitimacy of the first two sons. After one of those visits to the home, the husband left India in the year 1977. His next visit was only on 24-6-1979. The husband and wife stayed for about three months then. A child was born on 19-1-1980. The husband doubted about its paternity. He rushed back home. The wife was searchingly questioned by him. According to the husband, she had owned that the child was not born to him; and she had made such a statement on oath at the Juma-ath Mosque at Cherukunnu. An estrangement thus arising between the parties led to the litigation. She moved the criminal Court for maintenance. The three children and herself figure us the petitioners. The husband is the respondent.

(2.) Maintenance was awarded to the petitioner and the first two children by the Magistrate. Maintenance for the third child was declined. According to the Court, the child was not born to the husband.

(3.) The order, to the extent it negatived the claim of the wife in respect of the maintenance of the third child, was subjected to a revision before the Sessions Court. That revision petition was, however, belated. A petition to condone the delay was considered by that Court. According to it, there was no satisfactory explanation for the delay; the petition to condone the delay was accordingly dismissed. The revisional Court, however, did not dispose of the revision petition only on the ground that it was belatedly filed. It considered the merits of the claim. It adverted to the finding of the trial Court that the husband had no access to the wife at the time the third child could have been begotten, as he was abroad; and the conclusion was: