KRISHNA BAHADUR PRADHAN Vs. TIKAMAYA NEWAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision is directed against an order dated 5-8-85 passed by the Sessions Judge Sonitpur at Tezpur in Criminal Motion No.121(D-2)84 whereby learned Judge having set aside the order of the Magistrate has awarded maintenance to the wife and children of the petitioner u/s. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 'the Code' for short.

(2.) It is a tragic story. Such tragedies are happening everywhere and almost daily. Smt. Tikamaya, the opposite party married the petitioner following the rites of Hindu Marriage. The husband promised before Almighty witnessed by the sacred fire (Homa) that he would share her sorrows, anxieties and care until death. He promised to share bread with her. The sacred promises, it seems are made to be breached. In the majority of cases it is trifle simple to find the guilty species. The stronger, the powerful, the Gods on earth are mostly found betraying the trust reposed on them by the soft hearted maidens. In most of the cases the victims are members of the weaker sex, who surrender their heart and soul and everything to their husbands who promise to husband them, to be abandoned flung away and jettisoned. Some are lucky to get some shelter. But what about the rest, the majority? How they eke out their living? I feel that responsible and venerable "social physicians", learned members of the legal profession and social workers can do a lot. The Constitutional mandates for providing legal aid should be made effective and real to provide justice and human dignity to the destitutes. The Fundamental duties spelled out in Art. 51 A of the Constitution obligate the State to serve the cause of the wretched, jettisoned and abandoned girls and women. Nothing efficacious and tangible has been done for the women and girls by the State. If it is the spirit of the Constitution to uphold the dignity of a citizen, I feel that the State is also obligated to perform the fundamental duty. The "justice delivery system" takes within its fold a very vast area comprising of the litigants, the lawyers, the judicial officers, the media, the social missonaries and all thinking persons and only a fragment falls outside the limit of the "Justice Delivery System". We have won political freedom but our aspirations also include that freedom "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; into that heaven of freedom let our country awake". Let me depart to enter into the merit of the case.

(3.) Smt. Tikamaya was aged 23 when she was thrown out by her husband as alleged by her. But, in the meantime she had five children born out of the wed-lock. She had to do household chores, and other duties and to rear up the children. Out of 5 children only two survived. When she lost her bloom and maiden beauty, the petitioner drove her out. She was either destined for red area or somewhere for her life and the children. Fortunately, she had her poor aged father. She and her two children took shelter in her father's house and filed a proceeding u/s. 125 of the Code' to get the statutory and rightful maintenance for her and his two minor children. The petitioner-husband appeared and filed his written statement. He admitted that Tikamaya was his legally married wife, Luckily owned the children as his, but claimed that he had never neglected to maintain his wife. The case of the husband was that the girl of her own accord had left the house, she was never ill-treated by him.