ASHWANI KUMAR CHATTERJEE Vs. JHOSTCHNANARANI CHATTERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Grant of maintenance to the wife and the children in a proceeding under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'the Code' by the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Puri in Criminal Misc. Case No. 335 of 1993 is the subject-matter of challenge in the present revision.

(2.) The factual matrix as unfolded is that the opposite party No. 1, the wife of the present petitioner, along with three daughters, opposite parties 2 to 4 herein filed an application under Section 125 of the Code claiming maintenance of Rs. 500/- for herself and Rs. 200/- for each of the children per month. According to the wife-opposite party No. 1, her marriage with the present petitioner was solemnised on 9-7-72 and three daughters and one son were born in their wedlock. The husband who has been working as a 'Bill Issuer' in Utkal Express has developed illicit relationship with his sister-in-law (wife's sister) and she objected to the same and requested him to mend his ways and amend his character. He did not pay any heed and left the house with the son in the month of February, 1993 abandoning the wife and children to suffer their own joss. It has also been asserted by her that while she had protested in regard to the illicit relationship of her husband with her sister she was brutally assaulted and deprived of food. The further case of the wife-opposite party is that she has been neglected and treated with intolerable cruelty and is not in a position to sustain herself and her daughters. It has al so been asserted by her that the salary of the husband is Rs. 3,500/- and it is his duty to maintain the wife and daughters.

(3.) The allegations of the wife-opposite party No. 1 herein were seriously refuted by the husband-petitioner stating, inter alia, that the wife is staying with a person named B. C. Sahu in a rented house along with her three daughters, and in spite of repeated requests she has not discontinued her relationship with the said B. C. Sahu and has not accepted the offer of the husband to come back to him along with the daughters to live in an atmosphere of amity and understanding. Thus, while making counter allegations of adultery against the wife, the husband has disputed all other allegations and controverted the claim of maintenance as advanced by her.