NARAYANI AMMA RAJAMMA Vs. NANUKUTTY ALIAS NANUKUTTEN PILLAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition is directed against the lower court's order in M. O. No. 10/ 1956 on the file of that court. That was a case filed by the mother and her three children, under S.488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for an order against the respondent to pay maintenance for the three children alleged to be born to him in the first petitioner. According to the 1st petitioner, she is the legally wedded wife of the respondent and petitioners 2 to 4 are the children born of that union. The respondent has subsequently married another lady and thereafter he has been neglecting to maintain these petitioners.

(2.) Even if the learned Magistrate was right in holding that the marriage between the first petitioner and the respondent has not been proved by any independent evidence, his further conclusion that in the absence of such proof there is no scope for finding that the respondent is the father of petitioners 2 to 4, will not necessarily follow. For sustaining a claim for maintenance on behalf of the minor children it is not necessary to prove that they were born to the respondent as the result of a legal marriage. Even if it is proved that these children were born to him as the result of an illegitimate union, the father is bound to maintain them.

(3.) In the result this revision petition is allowed and the order of the lower court is set aside. The case is sent back to the lower court for fresh disposal in accordance with law and in the light of the observations made above.