BELA RANI CHATTERJEE Vs. BHUPAL CHANDRA CHATTERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Rule which has been referred to us by Debabrata Mookerjee, J. involves the construction of Sub-section (1) of Section 488, Criminal P. C. The question for decision is whether a wife is entitled to an order of maintenance under Section 488, Cr. P. C. merely upon proof that her husband has contracted marriage with another wife or keeps a mistress.

(2.) The facts which give rise to the question are these: The petitioner Belarani Chatterjee was married to the opposite party on 8-2-1947. The marriage did not prove a success. According to the petitioner, while residing at Howrah, the opposite party, not only became unduly intimate with an unmarried girl but treated the petitioner with great harshness and cruelty. When, in December 1948, the position became Intolerable, the petitioner left the opposite party and went to reside with her relations. In 1950 the opposite party married again, making it impossible for the petitioner to live with the opposite party. On 28-7-1953, the petitioner filed in the Court of Sub-Divisional Magistrate at Alipore an application under Section 488, Cr. P. C. claiming maintenance from the opposite party.

(3.) The opposite party resisted the petitioner's claim on the ground that she was a woman of easy virtue and that, in any event, she had refused to live with him without sufficient cause and that accordingly she was not entitled to claim any maintenance.