KANDASWAMI MOOPAN Vs. ANGAMMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision is preferred against the order made by the Additional First Class Magistrate at Kulitalai in M. C. No. 58 of 1959.

(2.) The petitioner is the husband of the respondent, Angammal. The marriage took place about 20 years ago, and this couple has got two children, one of whom is sufficiently grown up to have the question of her marriage being taken up. It is very unfortunate that this couple have fallen out and they have been living separately. One of the many causes which seems to have divided the husband and wife is the fact that the wife wanted apparently to get her daughter married to her own brother and which the husband opposed. The marriage was not opposed on the ground that he was within the prohibited degrees, but apparently because the husband has taken a dislike of the brother-in-law proposed by the wife as his son-in-law. It is in these circumstances that this petition for maintenance was filed by the wife. The husband, first of all, stated that the wife had deserted him of her own accord, and, secondly, that he has always been willing to maintain her, and, thirdly, that the wife has left him in order to promote her illicit intimacy with one Velayudam who is living two doors off from the husband's house. The husband also pleaded that his means were straitened and that he could not give separate maintenance for the wife, as prayed for by her. (2a) The learned Magistrate went into the matter thoroughly and came to the conclusion that the husband and wife had fallen out and that the offer by the husband to take back the wife and maintain her is not bona fide and that his allegation that his wife is in illicit intimacy with Velayudam constitutes legal cruelty within the meaning of Sec. 488, Cr.P.C., justifying her to live apart from her husband and claim separate maintenance. The learned Magistrate, therefore, calculating that the income of the husband would be about Rs. 700 per annum and that the husband also was able-bodied and could work, gave the wife a maintenance of Rs. 20/- per month as well as a maintenance of Rs. 5/- each for the daughter, Subbammal, and the son, Veluswami, till they attained majority.

(3.) The defeated husband has sought to file this revision petition. The points for determination which have been urged as grounds for the admission of this petition are three in number.