CHARANDAS VASSONJI THAKAR Vs. NAGUBAI MANGLOREKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a bitter litigation which has already gone to the Privy Council twice. Today we are only concerned with the quantum of maintenance that has to be paid to the plaintiff as the permanent concubine of the deceased testator. There are other points raised in the present memorandum of appeal, but they have been abandoned.

(2.) As regards the question of quantum, a sum of Rs. 300 per month was awarded by the Commissioner, and his finding has been affirmed by Mr. Justice Crump in a judgment dealing fully with the case. Now I must go back one step in the history, and read the exact order of reference that was originally made by Mr. Justice Kanga, as he then was, on November 25, 1921. That order directed the suit to be referred to the Commissioner for taking accounts for ascertaining the value and income of the ancestral as well as the self-acquired estate of the said deceased Vasanji Madhavji Thakar and for reporting what in the opinion of the said Commissioner would be suitable maintenance for the plaintiff out of the said estate having regard to its value and income and the plaintiff's status and manner of life, I draw particular attention to the form of that inquiry.

(3.) Mr. Justice Kanga's order was appealed from. In the appellate Court a new point was taken that the lady was not entitled to maintenance because although she was a concubine of the deceased testator, yet she did not live with him in his house, which under the ancient Hindu text law was an essential condition. Accordingly, the appeal was allowed and Mr. Justice Kanga's order was discharged.