GULAM JILANI Vs. SHERA BANO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AN order passed by the Judicial Magistrate, first Class, Balapur in Miscellaneous Criminal Case No. 40 of 1981 on 24.3.1983 granting maintenance of Rs. 80/ - per month to the present respondent No. 1 and 2 has been challenged in this revision.

(2.) ADMITTEDLY the respondent No. 1 is the wife of the present petitioner. The wedlock still continues. The respondent No. 2 has been born to this couple during the wedlock. The respondents 1 and 2 filed Miscellaneous Criminal Case No. 40 of 1981 against the present petitioner for maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The contention raised by the petitioner therein was that the wife lived under the shelter of her husband quite happily for some period but thereafter she was ill -treated. About five years prior to the filing of the application the present petitioner reached his wife to her parents and since then he has not cared to look after her maintenance. It is at her parents' place that the present respondent No. 2 was born. It is the case of the petitioners in Criminal Case No. 40 of 1981 that the husband having sufficient source and means has refused and/or neglected to maintain the wife and the minor child. They, therefore, claimed maintenance at the rate of Rs. 200/ - per month for the wife and Rs. 80/ - per month for the child.

(3.) THE present petitioner husband controverted the case of the wife. He states that the wife left the abode of the petitioner and went to reside with her parents and since then she did not return to his abode. He made many efforts to bring her back but all his efforts proved in vain. It is also his contention that he instituted a suit for restitution of conjugal rights in 1978 against his wife and obtained a decree for restitution of conjugal rights in 1979. In spite of the decree the wife did not come to his shelter. She is, therefore, not entitled to claim any maintenance.