GOLLA SEETHARAMULU Vs. GOLLA RATHANAMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition filed under S.482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to quash the orders passed in Cri. Revision Petition No. 14 of 1987 on the file of the I Additional Sessions Judge, Kurnool.

(2.) The petitioner is the husband the respondent is the wife. The parties are Hindus and the marriage between them took place in the year 1963 at Tirupati according to Hindu religion and custom. Both lived together happily for about a period of three years. During that period they did not beget any children. In December, 1966 she went to her parents' house for Sankranti festival and the respondent made no attempt to take her back and from then onwards they started living separately. She got issued a notice on 18-7-1984 to pay a monthly allowance of Rs. 500/ per month but the husband never cared to take the notice and reply to it. Therefore, she filed a petition before the Addl. Judicial First Class Magistrate, Nandikotkur, under S. 125, Cr.P.C. claiming a maintenance of Rs. 300/- per month alleging that her husband wilfully neglected to maintain her. 2A. The husband, who is the petitioner herein, resisted the application on the ground that she deserted him and that she had illicit intimacy prior to and subsequent to the marriage with her sister's husband.

(3.) On a consideration of the entire material on record, the learned Magistrate rejected the contention of the husband and accepted the plea set up by the wife as correct and awarded a maintenance of Rs. 200/- per month taking into consideration the financial status of the husband and the annual income that is being derived by the joint family of the husband from the agricultural land. Aggrieved against the said award of maintenance, the husband preferred a revision petition. But that revision petition was dismissed confirming the finding of the learned Magistrate. Hence this petition by the husband, under S. 482, Cr.P.C.