PARAMBOT THAYUNNI BALAKRISHNA MENON Vs. GOVIND KRISHNAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CRL. R. C. No. 543 of 1958 is filed against the order of the Third Presidency magistrate passed in M. P. No. 332 of 1957, granting maintenance to the respondents at Rs. 460 pef month by the petitioner herein; and Crl. R. C. No. 544 of 1958 is against the order of the same Magistrate in M. P. No. 213 of 1958. refusing to set aside the ex parte order of maintenance passed in favour of the respondents.

(2.) THE petitioner is in the employ of the Government of India as Charge-d-Affairs, indian Embassy at Santiago, Chile. South America. He married the mother of the respondents, and after giving birth to two children on whose behalf the petition for maintenance was filed, there were divorce proceedings between the petitioner and his wire; the wife has been divorced and she has married another. The petition for maintenance was filed in court at a time when the petitioner was serving in Bagdad as First Secretary in the Indian Embassy there. Summons were sent out on 26-11-1957 in accordance with the provisions of Section 72, Cr. P. C. , for service on the petitioner. It was received on 1-12-1957 in the Embassy Office at Bagdad. The petitioner was then working in that office and left that office on the 18th on account of his assignment as Charge-d Affairs, Chile. For some reasons or other, no attempt appears to have been made to serve the summons after the 1st and before he left the station on the 18th. But the fact remains that summons was not served on him in accordance with the provisions of section 69, Cr. P. C. The question under these circumstances is whether it can be said that the petitioner has been served with summons on the petition for maintenance.

(3.) SECTION 72, Cr. P. C. clearly lays down that