BALAJI BHAURAO KALBANADE Vs. PARUBAI BHAGUJI WARHADE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Criminal Application, I am called upon to interpret a benign provision in regard to the economic condition of neglected wives and discarded divorcees enacted in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, namely, section 125. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, will hereafter be referred to as "the 1973 Code".

(2.) It is common ground that the present petitioner, namely Balaji Kalbanade, and present respondent No. 1, namely, Parubai, entered into a legal marriage sometime in the year 1960 and they put an end to this marriage in the year 1970 by executing a deed of divorce. The deed of divorce came to be executed on 17-10-1970 and since then, respondent No.1 stands in the position of a divorcee. There is no dispute that respondent No. 1 has not remarried since the divorce.

(3.) The original petitioner who is respondent No.1 in this petition, alleged in the lower Court that she used to maintain herself by doing labour work, but since about six months prior to the date of filing her maintenance petition in the lower Court, she was sick and was unable to maintain herself. She alleged that her husband, that is the petitioner in this petition, was earning Rs. 3,000/- per annum by way of salary and was also getting an income of Rs. 1,000/- from his agricultural property and thus, he possessed sufficient means. Since she was unable to maintain herself, she filed this petition for maintenance under section 125(1) of the 1973 Code claiming maintenance allowance at the rate of Rs. 200/- per month.