1. This is a reference made to this Court by the learned Second Additional Sessions Judge, Poona, and it arises from an application made by the husband. It appears that the petitioners wife sued him for maintenance, and the Magistrate made an order allowing the wife maintenance, at the rate of Rs. 20 per month and each child at Rs. 15 per month. The wife then made an application for arrears of past maintenance, when there was a compromise between the parties, because the parties agreed that they would resume cohabita-tion. and that application for arrears was disposed of. Subsequently it appears that the wife and husband cohabited for some time, but then they again separated, and the wife made an application again for arrears of past maintenance from the date of the original application, namely, the 14th of April 1953. The husband then raised a contention that he and the wife had resumed cohabitation, and consequently the order had come to an end. The order which the Magistrate passed upon this was that in that case the husbands remedy was to make an application under Section 489. Then the Magistrate went on to say that the husband had agreed to pay the wife maintenance at