Pandrang Row, J.

1. The petitioner in this case is the husband of the respondent who has obtained an order of maintenance in her favour from the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Ranipet under Section 488, Criminal Procedure Code. The main defence to the application for maintenance was that the petitioner was living in adultery. The learned Sub-Divisional Magistrate observes on this part of the case merely that there is ample evidence that the petitioner was having illicit intercourse with Chinnappa and he then goes on to quote certain observations of Newsam, J., in Lakshmi Ambalamv. Andi Ammal AIR1938Mad66 on the file of the High Court to the effect:

Living in adultery is something quite different from leading an unchaste life. The principle it seems to me is that a husband is absolved from the obligation to maintain his wife when his wife has a de facto protector with whom she lives and by whom she is being maintained as if she were his wife.

2. The learned Magistrate then comes to the conclusion that "under this interpretation the sometime immoral character of the petitioner would not constitute living in adultery." The facts elicited in evidence are not merely that there was only