1. The petitioner has approached this Court with the following prayers:-

“(i) To call for records leading to the petitioner’s case from the 1st respondent and issue a writ of certiorari or other appropriate writ, order or direction and quash Exhibit P1 order.

(ii) to declare that the 3rd respondent has no right to attach the salary of the petitioner on the basis of Ext.P1 order.”

2. Heard.

3. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the Women’s Commission does not have the power to issue Ext.P1 order by which the petitioner has been directed to pay maintenance to his wife. The Commission ordered that the petitioner should pay 3/4th of his salary to his wife and two children to meet the expenses for remitting the housing loan installments and for their livelihood and education.

4. Relying on a decision of the High Court of Delhi in Bhupinder Singh v. Delhi Commission for Women and Ors. (W.P.(C).No.11615/2006), it is contended that the Women’s Commission ought not to have issued such a direction.

5. I have considered the contentions advanced.

Section 16 of the Kerala Women’s Commission Act, 1990 provides the functions of the Commission which reads as follows:-

16. Functions of the Commission. - (1) The Commission shall perform all or any of the following functions, namely:-

(i) inquire into any unfair practice, take decision thereon and to recommend to the Government the action to be taken in that matter;

(ii) cause investigations to be made by the Director on issues of importance concerning women and issues concerning unfair practice and to report thereon to the Government on the corrective measures to be taken;

(iii) submit to the Government annual reports on,-

(a) the lacunae, inadequacies, or shortcomings in the laws in force which affect the constitutional right to equality and fair treatment of women and also on the remedial legislative measures to be taken to meet the situation;

(b) the monitoring of the working of laws in force concerning women with a view to identifying the areas where the enforcement of laws is not adequately effective or has not been streamlined and recommending executive or legislative measures to be taken;

(c) monitoring the recruitments made to State Public Services and State Public Undertakings and promotions within the said services and scrutinizing the rules and regulations governing such recruitments and promotions with a view to reporting to the Government action, if any, required to guarantee equal opportunity to women in the matters of such recruitments and promotions;

(iv) (a) inspect or cause to be inspected, by the Director or any officer of the Commission authorised by the Commission in that behalf, prisons, police stations, lock-ups, sub-jails, rescue homes or other places of custody where women are kept as prisoners or otherwise, or shelters for women or other places run by the Government or any of its agencies including agencies receiving aid from the Government for the purpose of offering rescue or shelter to women, or hostels intended for women or girls run by any person and such other places wherein unfair practice to women is complained of and cause further inquires to be made about the treatment that women and girls are subjected to at such places and to report to the Government for taking remedial action.

(b) in cases where the Commission is of the view that any public servant has been grossly negligent or grossly indifferent in regard to the discharge of his duties in relation to the protection of the interests of women recommended to the concerned disciplinary authority to initiate disciplinary action;

(v) recommend to Government, the welfare measures to be adopted and implemented by the Government with a view to ameliorating the conditions of women;

(vi) formulate a comprehensive and affirmative scheme for securing equal opportunities to women and devise a programme for implementing such scheme which shall be forwarded to the Government for approval and on obtai