ANNADURAI Vs. JAYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenging the impugned order dtd. 23/11/2021 passed in CMP No.2529 of 2021 in M.C.No.1 of 2014 by the learned Judicial Magistrate No.II, Madurantagam, the present criminal revision case has been filed.

(2.) The fact of the case is that the petitioner is the husband. The respondent is the mother-in-law of the petitioner. The petitioner married the respondent's daughter Saraswathi in the year 1991. Due to misunderstanding, they separated. The petitioner/ husband by filing a divorce petition under Sec. 13 (1)(i) (b) of Hindu Marriage Act before the Sub Court, Seyyur, got a divorce decree by an order dtd. 20/1/2005. Thereafter, Saraswathi filed a maintenance case in M.C.No.1 of 2014 before the Judicial Magistrate No.II, Madurantagam. After trial of the maintenance case, the learned Judge awarded a monthly maintenance of Rs.7,500.00 payable by the petitioner/husband to his wife Saraswathi on 22/1/2021 and the amount was ordered to pay from the date of petition i.e. on 4/1/2014. Thereafter, his wife Saraswathi filed a maintenance application in M.C.No.1 of 2014 and got maintenance order.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the relationship of the parties is not disputed. The wife Saraswathi, who is the petitioner in the maintenance case, died on 5/6/2021. The maintenance is the personal right of the petitioner's wife. On her death, that right extinguished, no cause of action has survived. Since the right to claim maintenance would not have survived on her death, her mother is not competent to continue the proceedings and not entitled to claim arrears of maintenance from the husband of the deceased her daughter. Therefore, the respondent mother-in-law would not be impleaded in the place of his wife Saraswathi to collect the arrears of maintenance. Hence, the impugned order is unsustainable and it is to be set aside and the criminal revision case has to be allowed.