DIPAK KUMAR CHATTERJEE Vs. LEENA CHATTERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By the instant Revisional Application under Section 401, read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter shortened into Code), the petitioner-husband (hereinafter referred to as husband) has prayed the Court for quashing and/or setting aside the Order No. 75 dated 16.11.92 passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Howrah in Misc. Case No. 773 of 1985 before him directing him (husband) to pay the arrears of maintenance to the petitioner-wife in terms thereof, on the grounds set forth therein.

(2.) The facts giving arise to the instant Revisional Application may shortly be stated as follows :

(3.) The parties were married according to Hindu Rites on 13.12.65. But they could not live together for long. The opposite-party-wife (hereinafter referred to as wife) had filed an application for maintenance against the husband under Section 125 of the Code on 6.9.1985, in the circumstances stated therein, on the ground that the husband had refused and neglected to maintain her. A suit for divorce, being Mat. Suit No. 189 of 1985, had been subsequently filed before the District Judge, Howrah, on 14.12.85. In the said Mat. Suit on application by the wife for interim alimony, the learned District Judge by order dated 26.3.86 had allowed her alimony pendente lite against the husband at the rate of Rs. 300/- only per month. The interim alimony so allowed by the learned District Judge had subsequently been enhanced to Rs. 400/- per month by order dated 13.1.87 in the said Mat. Suit. The application filed by the wife under Section 125 of the Code, being Misc. Case No. 773 of 1985, had thereafter been disposed of by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate at Howrah by order dated 10.4.89 allowing her application for maintenance and directing the husband to pay her maintenance at the rate of Rs. 500/- only per month. The opposite-party-husband in the said proceeding had brought to the notice of the Court the order of interim alimony passed by the learned District Judge in the aforesaid Mat. Suit against the husband which appears to have been taken note off by the learned Magistrate. After the passing of the aforesaid order dated 10.4.89 by the learned Magistrate for maintenance at the rate of Rs. 500/- only per month, the husband had filed an application before him (Magistrate) under Section 127 of the Code for modification of the order on 20.4.89 on the ground that he was paying maintenance pendente lite to the wife under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act. The said application was rejected by the learned Magistrate by his order dated 6.7.89. The husband had thereupon come up for revision before this Court there-against in Criminal Revision Case No. 1194 of 1989 which was rejected on 11.3.90. The husband had thereafter filed an application before the learned Magistrate on 31.3.90 for adjustment of maintenance in view of the aforesaid two orders of maintenance passed by the two Courts, as indicated above. The said Application was allowed by the learned Magistrate by his order dated 4.2.91, whereupon the wife had moved this Court in Revision, being Criminal Revision Case No. 993 of 1991. The said Revisional Application was allowed by this Court by order dated 7.9.92 whereby the order dated 4.2.91 passed by the learned Magistrate, wherein he had taken into consideration the amount which was paid by the husband in terms of the order of the Matrimonial Court under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act for working out of the figure of arrears maintenance payable by the husband, had been set aside. The learned Magistrate was directed thereunder to work out the arrears of maintenance due to the wife from the husband in the light of the observations made therein. The question of adjustment of the maintenance payable by the husband to the wife having thus been disposed of by the order of this Court in the aforesaid Criminal Revisional Case No. 993 of 1991, it is not open to the husband to re-agitate the point over again in the grab of the instant application.