The court has the discretion to direct the acceptance of additional pleadings and order interim maintenance for a minor child without going into the merits or demerits of the claims.

The respondents viz., wife and minor child of the petitioner, filed M.C. No.12 of 2005 before Judicial Magistrate No.2, Walajah, against the petitioner seeking maintenance. During the pendency of the proceedings, a counter was filed by the counsel for the petitioner by name Dhanapal wherein, the marriage between the petitioner and the first respondent has been admitted. Subsequently, a second counter affidavit came to be filed disputing such marriage and the learned Magistrate, by order dated 26.07.2006 passed in Cr.M.P. No.1938 of 2006 in M.C. No.12 of 2005, refused to accept the said counter and posted the case for further enquiry; under such circumstances, the present petition has been moved before this Court on 17.08.2006 with a prayer to set aside the order of the trial court in refusing to receive the second counter affidavit.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is entitled to file the second counter affidavit and the order passed by the learned Magistrate is erroneous and seeks permission to file the said counter.

3. I have heard the learned counsel for the respondents who, by stating that he has no objection for filing/acceptance of such second counter affidavit, submits that the contents in both the counters may be taken into consideration at the time of adjudication of the Maintenance Petition.

4. I have perused the materials available on record and carefully considered the submissions made. It is unfortunate that a Maintenance Case which was filed during 2005 has been prolonged by filing the present petition before this Court. In view of the concession of the counsel for the respondent, while setting aside the order, refusing to receive the second counter, learned Magistrate is directed to receive the same and adjudicate the issue on the basis of the materials available on record including the original counter. Since the case has been pending for a long time only because of the reason that the petitioner has filed the present petition, I am of the considered view that interim maintenance for the minor-R2 can be ordered without going into the merits or demerits of the claims and accordingly, the petitioner is directed to deposit Rs.10,000/-(Rupees ten thousand only) before the Magistrate. Since the 2nd respondent is minor, the first respondent/mother is permitted to withdraw the said amount for his maintenance. The learned Magistrate is directed to complete the proceedings within a period of three months from to-day.

5. Petition is ordered accordingly. Connected Miscellaneous Petition is closed.