MR E C KENT Vs. MRSEELKENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application to revise the order of the District Magistrate, Civil and Military Station, Bangalore, directing the petitioner to pay Rs. 300 a month under Section 488 of the Criminal P. C.. The petitioner is a well-to-do planter who neglected to maintain his wife and two children. The wife made an application to the District Magistrate and he has passed the order which is sought to be revised.

(2.) The first contention on behalf of the petitioner is that under Section 488 the Magistrate has jurisdiction to award only Rs. 100 in all for the support of the wife and the children. Mr. Mockett, who appears for the petitioner, relies upon the Words " Rs. 100 in the whole " and argues that the Magistrate cannot award more than Rs. 100 in all for the support of the wife and the children and that the award by the Magistrate of Rs. 300, Rs. 100 for the wife and Rs. 100 for each of the children is ultra vires. Clause 1 of Section 488 reads as follows: If any person having sufficient means neglects or refuses to maintain his wife, or his legitimate or illegitimate child unable to maintain itself, the Distract Magistrate, etc., may, on proof of such neglect or refusal order such person to make a monthly allowance for the maintenance of his wife or such child, at such monthly rate not exceeding one hundred rupees in the whole, as such Magistrate thinks fit.

(3.) To contend that when a woman makes an application for herself and for children she could only be given Rs. 100 for the maintenance of herself and of her children whatever be the number, is opposed to the clear wording of the section. If the petitioner's construction of the section is correct, it would amount to this : if a person has an illegitimate child and an application is made under this section and Rs. 100 is awarded to that child and if that person afterwards refuses to maintain his wife and his legitimate children, the wife and the legitimate children would have no remedy against him, for the sum of Rs. 100 has already been awarded for the support of the illegitimate child, and no further order can be made on behalf of the wife and legitimate children as no Magistrate can award more than Rs. 100 for all the persons whom he is bound to maintain.