This Revision Petition is not opposed. The wife's claim to maintenance is not a very strong one. She has waited three years to claim it. The petitioner now offers to take her back. She refuses to go unless he will give up his mistress. Petitioner's case is that Sundari is not his mistress, but the learned Magistrate believes that she is, and that he will not desert her. The main point, however, seems to be that petitioner has never so far insulted his wife as to compel her to live in the same house as his mistress, nor does it seem likely that petitioner will now adopt this course of conduct. If he does, respondent may justifiably leave him and again claim maintenance. But I am not in agreement with the learned Magistrate that the respondent can exact a promise of sexual fidelity before she returns to live with the petitioner. In Arunachala Asari v. Anandayammal, my learned brother Burn J. has held that S. 488 of the Criminal Procedure Code has nothing to do with the conjugal rights; and although that case deals with Hindus there is no reason why its principles should not be extended to the case of Indian Christians. I accordingly allow this Petition and quash the order for maintenance.
Petition allowed.
N.R.R