PANDIT DATTATRAYA KULKARNI Vs. LAXMIBAI PANDIT KULKARNI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition filed by the husband challenges the concurrent orders passed by the two Courts below granting application for maintenance filed by the respondent No. 1 - wife under Section 125 of Cr. P.C.

(2.) THE brief facts are that the parties were married on 6.6.1964 and a son by name Sudhir was given birth to by the respondent -wife on 2.7.1965. Subsequently wife left the matrimonial house and started living with her parents and, therefore, the petitioner husband filed a matrimonial petition in the Civil Court for restitution of conjugal rights on 27.2.1969. The said petition was decreed against the wife by the Trial Court on 22nd March, 1972 holding that the respondent -wife had withdrawn from the society of the husband without reasonable cause. Wife then filed an application under Section 125 of Cr. P.C. for maintenance in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, Panhala on 28th March, 1990 on the ground that the husband had contracted marriage with another woman by name Vimal @ Mangal and, therefore, she could not go and stay with the petitioner -husband in compliance with the decree for restitution of conjugal rights.

(3.) MR . Hiranandani, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner contended that once the Civil Court had held that the wife had no reasonable cause to stay away from the husband, she is not entitled for grant of maintenance as the finding of the Civil Court is binding in the criminal proceedings adopted by the wife under Section 125 of Cr. P.C. He -next submitted that mere production of voter's list is not sufficient to hold that the husband had married for the second time.