JEMAMANI DAS Vs. UMESH CHANDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision is directed against the reversing order passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Balasore, rejecting the petitioner's claim of maintenance under S. 125 of the Criminal P.C. ('Code' for short).

(2.) The petitioner's case in brief is that she used to visit her uncle, a neighbour of the opposite party at village Rampur, in course of which both of them developed intimacy. Thereafter, the opposite party frequently; visited her house in village Kahanragohiri and became close to her family. He proposed marriage with the petitioner and so her mother negotiated with the parents of the opposite party for performance of the marriage, but they did not agree. When the opposite party insisted for the marriage on pain of committing suicide, the petitioner's mother agreed and the marriage between the parties was solemnised on 5-3-1976 according to Hindu rites and customs. After the marriage they lived together for a few months during which, the petitioner conceived. The opposite party, however, demanded a sum of Rs. 100/- per month from the petitioner's mother towards his study expenses and as she could not meet the demand, he dissociated himself from the company of the petitioner and subsequently contracted a second marriage. He neglected and refused to maintain the petitioner and so she filed a petition under S. 125 of the Code claiming monthly maintenance of Rs. 150/-.

(3.) The opposite party in his counter stated that the petitioner is older to him in age and had earlier been married to one Brundaban Panigrahi who had left her. Her brother was his class friend and had incurred a loan of Rs, 300/- from him. When he demanded the loan, a false case was started against him. As a matter of fact, on 5-3-1976 he was appearing in his I.A. Examination in Fakir Mohan College, Balasore and so it was unthinkable that he got married to the petitioner on that day. So, he was not liable to pay maintenance to her.