JUDGEMENT - H. SURESH, J.:---In a matrimonial petition filed by the wife as against the husband on the ground of desertion and cruelty the wife took out a notice of motion for interim maintenance and for costs. The learned Judge dismissed the said notice of motion on the ground that for 19 years she had stayed away from her husband and that she did not ask for maintenance and that, therefore, she should not get any order of maintenance.

2. Prima facie, this line of reasoning is untenable in law. There are circumstances and circumstances which have to be taken into consideration particularly when the wife has to stay away from her husband. In her petition, she has made various allegations as to why she could not stay with her husband. When she left her husband, she was pregnant and thereafter she delivered a son who is now about 19 years old. For 19 years the husband did not pay a single pie to the wife or to the son. I am told that her son is studying in a college and she is meeting all the expenses of herself as also of her son. She is working as a mill hand on a temporary basis and she earns about Rs. 400/- per month.

3. Mr. Mody says that her son is doing some odd jobs and earning

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