JUDGMENT

Punchhi, J.-Special leave granted.

2. The Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, Madras, and the Superintendent of Wakfs, Tirunelveli, the appellants herein, are aggrieved against an order of the High Court of Madras, dated 16.3.1994 in Crl. O.P. No. 3557/93 declining to interfere and quash a proceeding in M.C. No. 11/92 pending on the file of the Court of the Judicial Magistrate, Tiruchendur, in which the respondent-Syed Fatima Nachi-is claiming maintenance as the applicant.

3. The respondent is a Muslim divorced wife. She filed a petition against the appellants under Section 4(2) of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 (for short the Act ) seeking maintenance at the rate of Rs. 750/- per mensem. The petition was founded on the facts that she was married to one Syed Ahmed Moulana on 10.6.1980 in accordance with the tenets of Muslim Law and out of the wedlock, she had procreated female twins on 6.4.1981. Her husband divorced her on 12.6.1986 and since then she has not remarried. Claiming that the respondent had no income or means to maintain herself, as well as her minor female children, none of them owning any property, she was, thus, unable to main