SURENDRAN K. Vs. ASWIN K.S. AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision petitioner is the respondent in MC No. 160/10 on the files of the Family Court, Kozhikode. The above petition was filed under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the respondents herein, who are the children of the petitioner, claiming maintenance allowance @ Rs. 3,500/- each as monthly maintenance allowance. According to the respondents, the petitioner has neglected them and refused to pay maintenance allowance to them from April, 2008 onwards. The petitioner is employed as Ticket Examiner and the mother is employed in Railway service. According to the respondents, they were living along with their parents in the Railway Quarters upto 2008 and thereafter the father was transferred to Palakkad Division. Thereafter the relationship between the father and the mother got strained and the father is living separately at Palakkad. Now the respondents are totally depending upon their mother for their needs. But she is unable to maintain herself and the respondents with the income derived from her salary; whereas the petitioner has a monthly salary of Rs. 19,751/- and his salary is more than that of their mother. Both respondents require Rs. 3,500/- each per month.

(2.) The revision petitioner admitted the paternity of the respondents and it has come out in evidence that he has not paid any amount towards their maintenance after 2008. According to the petitioner, their mother is receiving more salary and she is able enough to maintain them. In addition to that, the respondents are getting educational grant from the Railway. It is alleged that the mother was not willing to live with him and he made all the earnest attempts to shift the wife and children to Palakkad where he is employed. According to him, only because of the adamant stand taken by the mother of the respondents they were constrained to live without the company of their father. After considering the rival pleas and evidence on record adduced by both parties to support the said pleas, the Court below directed the petitioner to pay maintenance allowance @ Rs. 1,500/- each to the respondents. The correctness of the quantum of maintenance allowance determined by the Court below is mainly challenged in this revision petition.

(3.) Going by the impugned order, it is seen that the petitioner has admitted the paternity of the respondents and also the fact that he has not paid any amount towards maintenance allowance to them after 2008. According to him, only because of the adamant stand taken by the mother of the respondents, the relationship got strained and he was compelled to live separately. But I am of the opinion that the strained relationship between the father and mother is insignificant and irrelevant, when considering the right to maintenance of the children. Under Section 125 of the Cr.P.C., primarily, the father is liable to pay maintenance allowance to his children, irrespective of the strained relationship between father and mother. The primacy of the father in maintaining the entire family is evident from the liability to maintain the wife also.