PALANISWAMI GOUNDAR Vs. DEVANAI AMMAL AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE only question which was argued before us was whether a Hindu wife is entitled to claim separate residence and maintenance under the Hindu Married Women's Right to Separate Residence and Maintenance Act (Act XIX of 1946) on the ground that her husband had married a second wife, when the second marriage took place before the passing of the said Act. The answer to this question depends on a construction of Clause (4) which occurs in Section 2 of the Act. That section runs thus:

(2.) I shall now refer first to the decisions of this Court on the construction of the cause. The earliest reported case on the point is Lakshmi Ammal v. Narayanaswami Naicker, (1950) 1 M.L.J. 63. Viswanatha Sastri, J., held that the clause in question would apply even when the second marriage had been contracted before the Act. The learned Judge discussed the object of the Act, which according to him was.

(3.) I find myself, therefore, in agreement with Krishnaswami Nayudu, J., and the decisions of the Nagpur and Bombay High Courts.