LAWS(KER)-1978-9-6

JOSE Vs. MARY JOSE

Decided On September 27, 1978
JOSE Appellant
V/S
MARY JOSE Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, a teacher in a Public School at Gwalior, seeks to revise an order passed by the Addl. Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, Ernakulam, awarding maintenance to his wife, first, respondent, at the rate of Rs. 150/- per mensem and to their minor daughter, the second respondent, at the rate of Rs. 90/- per mensem. The parties are Roman Catholics. The marriage between the petitioner and the first respondent were solemnized according to the religious rites at Lourdes Catholic Church at Trichur in the year 1967. After the marriage the petitioner took the first respondent to Gwalior and they were staying there together as husband and :wife for about 6 months. While so the first respondent became pregnant and she came to the house of her parents at Trichur along with a family Which was coming from Gwalior to Trichur. Shortly thereafter the first respondent gave birth to the second respondent. According to the first respondent, the petitioner was very cruel towards her and she was being ill treated and manhandled at Gwalior. It is also the ease of the first respondent that the petitioner was leading an adulterous life keeping another woman by name Mariyamma Varghese as his mistress. Ever since the first respondent came to Trichur, except sending Rs. 75/- on two occasions, the petitioner has not sent any amount to the respondents towards their maintenance and he was neglecting them, as a result of which the respondents were finding it difficult to make both ends meet.

(2.) The revision petitioner resisted the prayer for maintenance on the grounds that the court at Ernakulam has no jurisdiction to entertain the petition, that he is prepared to maintain the respondents if they went and stayed with him at Gwalior, and that the first respondent has independent income to maintain herself.

(3.) Pw. 1, the first respondent, Pw. 2, her father, and Pw. 3, a family friend and a distant relative residing at Chottanikkara, were examined and Exts. P1 to P7 were marked in support of the application for maintenance.