RAJAVALAPPIL PREMARAJAN Vs. P K PUSHPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition is directed against an order passed by the Family Court directing the petitioner to pay maintenance at the rate of Rs.1,000/- and Rs.1,200/- p.m. respectively to the claimants, admittedly his wife and minor child.

(2.) Marriage, paternity and separate residence are all admitted. The liability to maintain the child is not disputed. The dispute on that aspect is only about the quantum fixed. The petitioner contended before the Family Court that the wife had no justification for separate residence. The wife sought to justify her separate maintenance on the assertion that the petitioner's father had misbehaved to her and had made improper passes at her. She examined herself as PW1 and the petitioner examined himself as CPW1 (the Appendix of the order does not show that). Exts.P1, P2 and X1 were marked on the side of the claimants.

(3.) The court below considered the offer made by the husband in detail and came to the conclusion that the claimant wife is justified in her insistence that she cannot go and reside with the petitioner either at the family house or at a house newly constructed by the petitioner close to the family house as she apprehended harm to her at the hands of her father-in- law.