CHANCHALBEN PURSHOTTAMBHAI PATEL Vs. MADHUKANTBHAI PURUSHOTTAM PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "What indeed is "THE DUTY" of the Court entertaining maintenance application under Sec. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, towards the destitute dependants, viz., wives, children, parents, (as the case may be) claiming maintenance from the persons who are legally bound to maintain them, and for that purpose even the interim maintenance for their immediate survival ?" This in substance is the most urgent, pressing question calling upon this Court to answer in the right earnest and thereby impress upon the concerned learned Magistrates as regards the imperative need to be on alert and active enough on their part to the immediate dire needs of the claimants struggling hard for their survival . In other words, to make them conscious towards the question of basic human rights of the weakest and unenviable persons involved, to command and commission them as service oriented, indoctrinating them that they were the 'welfare trustees' of destitute wives, children and parents to stand by them in hour of their financial crisis like rapid-action force.

(2.) Few relevant facts : Chanchalben, widow of Purushottam K. Patel, filed a maintenance application under Sec. 125 of the Code against the Opponent - Madhukant Patel who happens to be her son in the Court of learned Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad, alleging that she had no personal source of income and her son refuses to maintain her, praying for the maintenance allowance at the rate of Rs. 400.00 per month. Pending the said application, she also prayed for interim maintenance allowance which the learned Magistrate was at once pleased to grant at the rate of Rs. 300.00 per month by an Order dated 14-8-1991. This came to be challenged by her opponent son filing the Criminal Revision Application No. 290 of 1991 before the learned Addl. City Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad, who in his turn by a Judgment and Order dated 2-1-1992 was pleased to partly allow the same, reducing said interim maintenance allowance to Rs. 100.00 per month from Rs. 300.00 giving rise to the present Criminal Revision Application.

(3.) Ordinarily, the High Court is indeed quite loath in interfering with the interlocutory orders, however, at the same time, once it is convinced that the impugned order is perverse and perpetrates manifest injustice and that the interest of justice impressively so warrants to interfere as of duty with the same then there indeed cannot be any fetters which can hold it back to come in its way of reviewing, modifying and setting aside the same . Prima facie, to disown the mother by neglecting her to maintain and that too in her old age and when, on being requested to atleast give her the survival allowance, if the learned Magistrate in his discretion thought it proper to award the interim allowance at the rate of Rs. 300.00 per month, it was simply unjust and improper on the part of the learned Sessions Judge to arbitrarily reduce the same to Rs. 100.00 only, ignoring altogether the acute price rise in essential commodities alround on the one hand and the unquestionable imperative duty of the son to maintain old mother on the other hand . In old age, the applicant not only would require square meal a day and a pair of clothes to put on but some medicines would also be required. From this meagre amount of Rs. 100/- per month, how she was expected to manage her needs where half of the amount may be consumed taking a cup of tea if she is so habituated much apart the respectful survival ? When for any person under such circumstances the life truly turns into gamble, in state of sheer desperation, helplessness of struggling for survival, the apprehensive funky mind starts rotating, constantly like disc and under such circumstances, where her needle of needs or choice should stop to stand indicating the point of her satisfaction ? At the point of feeding belly, i.e., getting the food only? Or at the point of pair of clothes to cover her shame and modesty ? Or at the point of medicines to fight the old-age debility, and the disease ? What to choose and what to let do ? ? What a terrible state of embarrassment, frustration and uncertainty and that too of the MOTHER, a person to whom debt towards her is indeed simply irrepayable for lives to come . In such type of cases the interim allowance is not only inevitably must and at the earliest, but the same be fair and reasonable enough to take care of the concerned destitute dependant, save and escape for any special and adequate reasons it is not possible. The reason is that these days unfortunately the good-many maintenance applications just linger on and on for years together without their be any end in sight though the object underlying Sec. 125 of the Code is quite specific and crystal clear to provide cheap, speedy and summary remedy to the destitute dependants down in the street all of a sudden so as to immediately render them some succour to withstand and survive the catastrophe and predicament in which they are placed . If this much needed judicial consciousness and activism is not injected in the working of learned Magistrates and developed to take care of the most needy section of the society, the maintenance proceedings under Sec. 125 would lose all its benevolent significance and as a result what ought we know some frustrated soul may even brand such proceedings as 'catching at straw' . Quite rightly, perhaps . Accordingly, let the Courts take care before so stigmatized . It is only because these days the Courts are flooded with cases, marooned and stranded as they are and that take sometimes, even years to decide such applications, it has become necessary to pass some interim orders at the earliest possible, and accordingly when the Courts are passing some such interim orders, it is also and always duty bound to see that the interim amount awarded is not such petty and illusory one which just wets the lips but does not at all enter the mouth to quench the thirst, ridiculing the claimant and ultimately the administration of justice. While deciding the maintenance applications, be it at the stage of interim order or at the final stage, it is the paramount duty of every Court to see to it that the immediate justice is done right-now in time and in the right direction by taking appropriate care of the destitute-dependants placing itself in place of the hard pressed applicants and appreciating their day-to-day difficulties. Unlike other Criminal cases, the cases under Sec. 125 pertaining to the maintenance are firstly, partly to redress the civil right and accordingly quasi-judicial in nature and secondly, the Court is not called upon to punish the accused for the alleged offence committed which can take some time for which the Court may not be in undue hurry, but the maintenance is essentially a question of immediate need for survival and therefore, this sort of cases are required to be attended first and decided on "A priority basis". To appreciate the gravity and urgency of the situation in maintenance proceeding, to give an illustration, the maintenance application is just like a call summoning fire-brigade to extinguish the fire, where the brigade people cannot be allowed to be lethargic and take their own time to run to rescue the victims to avoid the situation whereby by the time they reach the urgency is lost and fire doing the maximum damage which could have been avoided by prompt action . To give another illustration, drowning person needs immediate rescue operation, likewise that is the urgency and importance of attending the maintenance problem. Accordingly, as to what factors are required to be taken into consideration at the initial stage, while entertaining the maintenance application under Sec. 125 of the Code, this Court on earlier occasion has already given some guidance in a decision rendered in the case of Miss Shilpa Bansilal Shah v. Bansilal K. Shah, reported in 1993 (1) GLH 753 : 1993 (1) GLR 223, the relevant paragraphs whereof is reproduced hereunder (at Page No. 234 of GLR) :-