SURENDRA PARASETH Vs. MAJABATI PARASETH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has challenged the order of maintenance under Sec. 125 Code Criminal Procedure passed by the learned Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Balliguda, against him on the application of the opposite party.

(2.) The opposite party filed a petition stating therein that she was married to the petitioner according to caste custom and both of them led a happy conjugal life for more than one and half years. During that period, she gave birth to a daughter who died during infancy. Subsequently, the petitioner developed love with another girl, ill-treated her and ultimately drove her out from the house. Since then, she is living with her widowed mother. The petitioner has twenty acres of cultivable lands and a grocery shop having an annual income of Rs. 20,000.00. She claimed maintenance of Rs. 200.00 per month.

(3.) The petitioner in his counter stated that he had not married the opposite party according to caste custom. There was, however, a proposal of their marriage which did not mature. When the opposite party became pregnant through someone else, her uncle left her in the house of the petitioner where she stayed for about four to five months, during which she gave birth to a female child. He denied that he owned twenty acres' of land and ran a grocery shop. On the other hand, it was stated that he was a daily labourer earning about Rs. 6.00 per day. He disclaimed his liability to pay maintenance to the opposite party.