ISAAC HAROLD GOMES Vs. MONICA SYLVIA GOMES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application filed Under Section 401 read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure praying for setting aside the Order dated 6th January 1990 passed by the learned Metropolitan Magistrate, 15th Court, Calcutta in Case No. M/8/89 granting maintenance allowances Under Section 125 Cr.P.C. to the petitioner/wife at the rate of Rs. 500/- per month with effect from the date of the filing of the petition.

(2.) This is the story of an unfortunate married couple whose dreams of a happy conjugal life have been shattered soon after the marriage. Neither the husband nor the wife has filed any suit for obtaining a decree of divorce till now but the wife has sought maintenance allowances from her husband mainly on the grounds of physical assault and neglegence. Husband has denied all these allegations. However, the learned Magistrate was satisfied from the evidence on record that she had been subjected to physical and mental cruelty and that a situation was created by the husband in which it was no longer possible on the part of the wife to live with the husband and accordingly he granted the maintenance allowances.

(3.) In a matrimonial proceeding we find very often sterio-typed allegations and counter-allegations. But the allegations in the instant case are of a different nature and at the same time more serious than the of trepeated allegations of extra marital relations. I find from the records the marriage between the parties was a negotiated one. Both the spouses are educated and the admitted position is that they got married on 29.12.87 at St. Teressa Church at Entally market, Calcutta, as per Christian Marriage rites. By virtue of their being Bengali Christians, some Bengali customs had also been performed at the marriage. These are, as deposed to by Mrs. Shila Rozaria (P.W. 4) putting on conch bangles, vermalion on the forehead of the bride and exchange of garlands. After the marriage the bride came to her hushand's house at 49, Sankaritala St. Calcutta and stayed there for 2 days. Then they shifted to a rented flat at No. 9, N.N. Mukherjee Street, Dum Dum. On 10.1.88 both of them went to Puri for honeymoon. According to the petitioner/wife they stayed there for a week and spent the time happily and returned to Dum Dum on 19.1.88. According to her, the marriage was consummated to the full satisfaction of both and as a result she had conceived but her case is that her husband and her mother-in-law did not like it and they forcibly administered her a homeopathic medicine prescribed by Dr. P.R. Sarkar which aborted the foetus in her womb. This brought a period of depression in her life. She wanted to perform the Christian religious ceremony of Novena which means the ceremony of 'Our Lady of Good Health' at her husband's residence at Dum Dum but her husband asked her to perform the same at her father's house. So she came to her father's house on 27.8.88. But before her departure, her husband warned her not. to come back again and if she would come back, a situation would be created which would compel her to leave the place and so out of fear she has not returned to her husband's house since 27.8.88 and stayed at her father's house.