1. This second appeal arises out of a suit for restitution of congregal rights filed by the wife against her husband which was allowed by the trial court but dismissed by the court below.

2. The parties are Thiyyas hailing from Eranad Taluk in Malabar. They were married in April-May 1949 and have two children. They admittedly separated in May 1953 about three months after the birth of the second child and have been continuously living away from each other thereafter. According to the plaintiff the defendant brought about a separation by taking her from the marital home to her parent's house and abandoning her without paying anything towards the maintenance of herself or the children. She averred in the plaint that the defendant was wrongfully contemplating a second marriage and launched the suit on 3-7-1954. The defendant contended that the plaintiff refused to nurse his ailing mother who was living with them and persisted in going to her father's house rather than remain with him. And finding that she could not be persuaded to come back, he took steps with the father's consent to effect a divorce in the customary form on 23-4-1954 and that second wife had also been take