JAWAHAR LAL Vs. CHAND DHAWAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order will also dispose of Civil Revision Petition No. 2998 of 1990, as both of them have arisen out of the same order of the Additional District Judge, Amritsar, whereby on an application under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter called the Act), the wife was allowed Rs. 2,000 as maintenance pendente lite and Rs. 6,000 as litigation expenses.

(2.) THE controversy between the parties is with regard to the jurisdiction of the Court to grant permanent alimony under Section 25 of the Act in the context of the dismissal of the petition under Section 13-B of the Act, for divorce by mutual consent. On August 23, 1985, the petition for dissolution of the marriage by a decree of divorce under Section 13-B of the Act was filed in the Court of the Additional District Judge, Amritsar: The said application was dismissed as withdrawn on August 9, 1987, which order reads as under :

(3.) IT has been stated at the bar and not disputed that after the withdrawal of the said application under Section 13-B, the husband filed a petition for divorce against his wife which is pending in the Court at Ghaziabad where the parties are said to have last resided. Meanwhile the wife Smt. Chand Dhawan filed an application under Section 25 of the Act, for permanent alimony. There she also moved an application under Section 24 of the Act for maintenance pendente lite which was allowed as observed earlier. Both the parties feeling aggrieved have filed these two separate petitions. The case has been referred to this Bench by the learned Single Judge because of the divergent judicial opinion expressed by this Court on the question whether an application under Section 25 of the Act, was maintainable when no decree for divorce as such was passed and the petition under Section 13-B of the Act, for grant of divorce by mutual consent, was dismissed as withdrawn.