IMPORTANT POINT
Children have a statutory and moral obligation to maintain their elderly parents, which cannot be dismissed due to personal financial difficulties.

ORDER :

1. The applicant has filed this criminal revision under Section 19(4) of the Family Court being aggrieved by the order dated 25-4-2024 passed by the Family Court Bastar at Jagdalpur in Criminal MJC No 100 of 2023 whereby learned Family Court has rejected the application under Section 127 of the Code of Criminal Procedure preferred by the present petitioner for recall of the order dated 19-2-2020 passed by the learned Family Court in MJC No. 172 of 2019 by which the learned Court has passed ex-parte order of maintenance against the present applicant by directing to pay Rs. 15,000/- per month from 19.02.2020.

2. The facts of the case in brief, are that the father of the petitioner Shri S.P. Mandal who was an employee of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) stood retired in the year 2007 and after retirement, as per the policy of the NMDC, father of the petitioner was entitled to get pension and at that time he was getting Rs.4000/- per month as family pension. Smt. Sunila Mandal who is respondent herein is the mother of the present applicant, she is a house wife and is residing at Jagdalpur in the house which was constructed by the father of the present petitioner when he was in service. The present applicant is working with NMDC from 2008-2009 and his brother namely Ajay Kumar Mandal (younger brother) is also a Government servant and he is working as Radiographer posted at Community health Centre, Tokapal from 2012.

3. Respondent’s husband died in the year 2017 and after death of her husband, on 6-9-2019 the respondent who is unfortunate mother of the present petitioner has filed an application under Section 125 of Cr.P.C. before the Family Court for grant of maintenance which was registered as MJC No 172 of 2019. The said application was allowed by the learned Family Court, Jagdalpur by recording its finding that the present petitioner and his brother are in gainful employment and the respondent/mother is now aged about 60 years, therefore, it is not possible for her to maintain and accordingly learned Family Court has allowed the application vide order dated 19.02.2020 directing payment of Rs. 15,000/- per month as maintenance. The learned Family Court while allowing the application has also considered the fact that the respondent/mother while examining herself before the trial Court has stated that her elder son Sanjay Kumar Mandal (applicant) has sold the land bearing Khasra No. 202/5 area 0.101/0, 025 acres (25 decimal) for Rs.9,00,000/- and the entire money was kept with him. She has also stated that five cheques were given to her but the same could not be encashed. Since she has no source of income, therefore, she was compelled to file an application under Section 125 of the CRPC before the Family Court for grant of maintenance. Accordingly, learned Family Court vide order dated 19-9-2020 has granted maintenance of Rs.15,000/- per month which was an ex-parte order.

4. Thereafter, on 17-1-2022 present petitioner has filed an application for setting aside the ex-parte order wherein the petitioner has stated that he is working in NMDC, and getting Rs. 55,000/- per month towards salary out of which he is required to pay Rs. 9,000/- towards car loan, Rs.14,000/- towards home loan and Rs. 20,000/- towards insurance loan and revision was filed before this court which was registered as Criminal Revision No. 271 of 2022 and the said application was dismissed by this Court on 21.07.2022 (Annexure A/9) granting liberty to the applicant to file an application under Section 127 of Cr.P.C. Thereafter, learned trial Court considering the submissions has rejected the application for setting aside the order passed on 19-2-2020 vide its order dated 25.04.2024 (Annexure A/1). The applicant has challenged both these orders before this Court by filing this revision petition on 05.06.2024.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner has two children, he has to look after them and therefore, he has more