ABDULLA KHAN Vs. CHANDNI BI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a reference under Section 438, Criminal P. C. by the Second Additional Sessions Judge, Bhopal, with the recommendation that the order dated 20-11-1954 of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Bhopal, ordering Abdulla Khan to pay Rs. 15/- per month as maintenance to his first wife Sm. Chandni Bi, be set aside. Both Sm. Chandni Bi and Abdulla Khan are absent and the case was taken up with the assistance of the Government Advocate.

(2.) SM. Chandni Bi had moved an application under Section 488, Criminal P. C. , on the ground that her husband Abdulla Khan had sent her away to the house of her father after beating her and did not maintain her for the three years prior to the moving of the application. She claimed maintenance at the rate of Rs. 25/- per month. Abdulla Khan opposed the application and blamed his father-in-law for not sending his daughter. He also said that he remarried when his first wife was not sent back.

(3.) THE learned Magistrate allowed the application of the ground that Sm. Chandni Bi had the right to refuse to live with her husband in view of the fact that he had married again and was living with the second wife.