This is a petition by one Sivakami Ammal against her husband Bangaruswami Reddi, who has obtained a decree for dissolution against her in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Salem, for giving her Rs.100 a month as maintenance during the pendency of her appeal and Rs.350 for her expenses in prosecuting the appeal. The petition has been made under section 5(7) of Madras Act VI of 1949. It is opposed vigorously. The respondents’ contentions are five, and I shall consider them seriatim below.

The first is that the petitioner has deserted the respondent, and that the respondent will only be too happy if she were to live with him and to give him the conjugal rights he is entitled to, and that therefore a woman like that should not be given relief under section 5(7). I am afraid that contention cannot be upheld in this petition because section 5(7) does not entitle the Court to go into an enquiry as to the moral merits of the husband and wife inter se in a summary petition like this.

The second contention was that the petitioner has ceased to be a wife the moment the lower Court passed the decree for dissolution of her marriage with the respondent, and that it is only a wife who ca