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2002 Supreme(Cal) 422

High Court Of Calcutta
MALAY KUMAR BASU
Nitya Ranjan Chakraborty - Appellant
Versus
KALPANA CHAKRABORTY - Respondent
C. R. R.  2841  Of  2001
Decided On : 07/02/2002

Advocates Appeared:
ASIT DAS, SASANKA KUMAR GHOSH

The court has the discretion to award maintenance from the date of application under Section 125(2) Cr.P.C., if it is so ordered. However, it is desirable to assign reasons for doing so.

Headnote:

MAINTENANCE - SECTION 125 (2) CR. P. C. - INTERPRETATION - MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE PAYABLE FROM DATE OF ORDER OR IF SO ORDERED, FROM DATE OF FILING APPLICATION - COURT'S DISCRETION TO AWARD MAINTENANCE FROM DATE OF APPLICATION - REASONS TO BE ASSIGNED - MAINTENANCE TO WIFE AND MINOR SON - AWARDED FROM DATE OF APPLICATION - MAINTENANCE TO MAJOR SON - NOT ENTITLED.

Fact of the Case:

Wife filed an application under Section 125 Cr.P.C. for maintenance in 1994. The petition was heard in 2000 after 7 years. The Magistrate awarded maintenance from the date of order. The wife filed a revision petition challenging the order and seeking maintenance from the date of application. The Additional Sessions Judge allowed the revision petition and awarded maintenance from the date of application.

Finding of the Court:

The court held that the maintenance allowance is payable from the date of order, or, if so ordered, from the date of the filing of the application for maintenance. The court further held that the court below should have assigned reasons for awarding maintenance from the date of application. However, the court found that there was sufficient justification for awarding maintenance from the date of application, considering the delay in hearing the petition and the possibility of husbands exploiting the situation by deferring the hearing of the matter.

Issues: 1. Whether the court can award maintenance from the date of application under Section 125(2) Cr.P.C.? 2. Whether the court is required to assign reasons for awarding maintenance from the date of application? 3. Whether the wife is entitled to maintenance from the date of application? 4. Whether the sons are entitled to maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C.?

Ratio Decidendi: 1. The court can award maintenance from the date of application under Section 125(2) Cr.P.C., if it is so ordered. 2. The court is not required to assign reasons for awarding maintenance from the date of application, but it is desirable to do so. 3. The wife is entitled to maintenance from the date of application, considering the delay in hearing the petition and the possibility of husbands exploiting the situation by deferring the hearing of the matter. 4. The sons are entitled to maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C., if they are minors.

Final Decision: The revision petition was allowed in part. The order of the Additional Sessions Judge awarding maintenance to the wife and minor son from the date of application was upheld. The order awarding maintenance to the major son was set aside.

MALAY KUMAR BASU, J.

( 1 ) THIS revisional application is directed against the judgment and order dated 24/08/2001 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, 6th Court, Alipore in its revisional jurisdiction in Crl. Motion No. 209/2001. By the said order, the learned Additional Sessions Judge allowed the revisional application which was filed against the judgment and order passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alipore, dated 2 3/03/2001 in T. R. No. 295/99 whereunder the learned Magistrate allowed the petition under S. 125, Cr. P. C in part awarding a sum of Rs. 1200/- per month in favour of the wife with effect from the date of order i. e. 23/03/2001. Being aggrieved by that order, the wife had filed the said revisional application on the ground that the order ought to have taken effect from the date of application and not from the date of order. The learned Additional Sessions Judge accepted this contention of the revisional applicant wife and passed the impugned order by awarding the maintenance at the rate at which the learned A. C. J. M. awarded it giving its effect from the date of application instead of the date of the order. The learned Additional Sessions Judge also found that both the sons of the petitioner-wife were minor being aged about 19 years and 15 years at the time of filing of the application and hence those two sons were found entitled to get maintenance till they attained majority.

( 2 ) BEING aggrieved by this order, the husband has preferred this revisional application under S. 401 read with S. 482 of Cr. P. C. challenging the said order as illegal and improper.

( 3 ) IN the first place, Mr. Ghosh contends that according to S. 125 (2) Cr. P. C. the maintenance allowance is payable from the date of order, or, if so ordered, from the date of the filing of the application for maintenance. According to Mr. Ghosh, in view of such style and language of the provisions, the Court below ought to have awarded the maintenance with effect from the date of order and if he took different view considered it necessary to award maintenance w. e. f. the date of application, then he was under an obligation to assign sufficient reason in support of such finding.

( 4 ) GIVING careful consideration to this aspect of the argument, I am of the opinion that the Court below by not assigning any reason, of course, committed an act of impropriety since at the first instance, in view of legal provision he was so to consider the question of giving effect to the order of maintenance from the date of order but since he did not accept that course to be a prudent one, under the given circumstance he considered it fit to give effect to the order from the date of application, he must have put a few words by way of reason as to why he was not adopting the first course. But his omission to assign any such reason should not be carried to the extent of being taken as a ground for rendering the order liable to be set aside, if otherwise it is in order:

( 5 ) MR. Das, learned counsel for the opposite party, however, has cited a ruling of a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Sankar Prosad Ghosh v. Lakshmi Rani Ghosh reported in 1998 Cri LJ 101 wherein the said Division Bench of this Court held that the provisions of Ss. 125 to 128 of the Code constitute a complete Code for itself and in the absence of specific direction that the allowance should be paid from the date of application, it would be from the date of order and there is no requirement to record reasons special or otherwise for passing an order with effect from the date of the application which was filed by the wife for maintenance and that section does not require recording of reason for awarding the maintenance from the date of the application and if the Court specifically orders payment of maintenance from the date of application, it is not necessary to record reasons in writing for such decision. But in the case under reference, the facts and circumstance






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