PADMANAVA GHOSH Vs. APARAJITA GHOSH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two revisional applications heard together arise in the circumstances as under :

(2.) Smt. Aparajita Ghosh, petitioner in Criminal Revision No. 1242 of 1987 and opposite party in the other case made an application before a competent Magistrate under Sec. 125, Cr.P.C. claiming maintenance against her husband Padmanava Ghosh, who is the opposite party in the said Revision No. 1242 of 1987 and the petitioner in the other. The application under Sec. 125, Cr.P.C. was disposed of on the 4th September, 1973, whereby learned Magistrate directed the husband to pay a sum of Rs. 80/ - per month to the wife on account of maintenance. Subsequently the husband made an application under Sec. 127(1) Cr.P.C. for cancellation of the order on the ground that his wife has since been employed as a teacher of a school on a decent salary and she was no longer in need of any maintenance from him. This application was sought to be resisted by the wife on the ground that it was not legally sustainable.

(3.) The learned Magistrate on consideration of evidence adduced before him has found that the wife was earning a sum of Rs. 900/ - per month after all deductions and that she was able to maintain herself on such income. However, the learned Magistrate took the view that there was no provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which enabled him to altogether cancel the order for payment of maintenance in such circumstances and accordingly directed the husband to make payment of a token maintenance allowance of Rs. 10/ - per month from the date of the order. Both the husband and the wife have come up in revision against this order, the former contending that the order for maintenance should have been cancelled in its entirety and the latter contending that the application under Sec. 127(1) Cr.P.C. should have been rejected.