Newsam, J.

1. This is a petition praying that an order of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Devakottai, awarding Rs. 15 as maintenance to a woman daughter, be revised.

2. The petitioner resisted the respondents claim for maintenance on two important grounds. The chief ground was that the woman seeking to be maintained was not his lawful wife. The pleadings are not exactly explicit on the point but their meaning is quite clear. Thus, petitioner said in his statement "She was taken as wife by me 12 years ago, though there was no actual marriage". There was a great deal of evidence on both sides on this question, but the Magistrate declined to give a definite finding. He seems to have been under the impression that a woman is entitled to maintenance if she has lived with a man as his wife for 12 years and has also borne him a child. That, however, is certainly not the law. Only legally married woman are entitled to maintenance. I must therefore send this case back to the lower Court for a definite finding after hearing both sides on the evidence already on record on the question whether there was a valid marriage between the parties. I may perhaps add that this Court will be very loat