VAIDYA J.- The above petition, under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, is filed by Smt. Mehbubabi, wife of respondent No. 1, who had filed an application, being Miscellaneous Application No. 44 of 1974, in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Sangli, under section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 1973, in which she had claimed maintenance from her husband respondent No. 1, Nasir Farid Shaikh, a business man of Sangli at the rate of Rs. 450 per month as maintenance for herself and her two little children born out of respondent No. 1.

2. The application was made by her on December 31, 1974, under section 125 of the new Criminal Procedure Code, which defines "wife" as including a woman who has been divorced by or has obtained a divorce from her husband and has not remarried and does not exclude Muslim wives notwithstanding that under Muslim law, a divorced wife would be entitled to maintenance only upto the period of Iddat.

3. The application was resisted by the husband, contending that the wife ran away from the matrimonial home on April 24, 1974, taking with her ornaments from the house; and as such, he has been put to loss; that there was an agr