MANISH HARISHBHAI PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is original respondent before the Family Court, Surat in maintenance application being Criminal Misc.Application no.207 of 2013. Such application was filed by respondent no.2 u/s.125 of Code of Criminal Procedure ('Cr.P.C.', for short), claiming maintenance of Rs.10000/ - from the present petitioner, who is her stepson. However, no such fact is disclosed in the application that she is stepmother of respondent no.2. What is stated in the application is only to the effect that respondent no.2 has filed one Regular Civil Suit no.179 of 2012 before the Civil Court at Surat and he is not taking care of his mother and, therefore, she has to die of starvation. As usual, there are also allegations regarding physical and mental cruelty. However, it cannot be ignored that respondent no.2 herein is stepmother and not wife of the present petitioner. It is also disclosed in the application itself that respondent is pressing to transfer some residential property in his name and for that he is behaving in cruel manner.

(2.) ORIGINAL respondent has resisted the application on all counts, including the fact that respondent no.2 mother has failed to disclose true facts before the trial Court and thereby suppressed the material information. It is also contended that being stepson, he is not absolutely liable to maintain her, more particularly, when her real son is alive and she is residing with her real son. Therefore, it is submitted that, in fact, when stepmother and her real son are trying to dispose of the ancestral properties and when present petitioner has to initiate legal proceedings in the form of Civil Suit as referred herein above to safeguard his interest, in counter -blast of such civil litigation, though respondent no.2 is residing with her real son, she has filed such application for maintenance u/s.125 of the Cr.P.C. and even did not join her real son or did not claim any maintenance from her real son.

(3.) UNFORTUNATELY , by impugned judgment dated 30.8.2014, the Family Court, Surat has allowed such application for maintenance by stepmother and directed the petitioner to pay Rs.2000/ - p.m. to her as maintenance. I have perused the record and considered the rival submissions. It is not disputed that respondent no.2 is stepmother of the petitioner and that she is living with her real son, who is also earning and that she is also having possession of ancestral properties for which the present petitioner has to file a civil suit. Then, the only issue remains is with reference to the entitlement of the stepmother to claim maintenance u/s.125 of Cr.P.C. It is true that there is no definition or distinguishing disclosure in law with reference to father and mother. The law provides for their maintenance by way of Section 125 of Cr.P.C. However, such issues were dealt with by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in much details, while deciding the case between Kirtikant D.Vadodaria Vs. State of Gujarat and Anr, 1996 4 SCC 479 . Since this judgment has never be overruled thereafter, though certain observations have been referred in the case of Vimlaben Ajitbhai Patel Vs. Vatslaben Ashokbhai Patel, 2008 AIR(SC) 2675 , the sum and substance of the decision in Kirtikant D.Vadodaria is quite clear, when Hon'ble Supreme Court has specifically held in paragraph 14 that -