Defamation of husband and wife.

JUDGMENT :- This is an appeal against the conviction of the appellant by the Second Presidency Magistrate for an offence under S. 500, I. P. C. The appellant has been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 500, in default to undergo simple imprisonment for three months.

2. The complainant is no other than the wife of the appellant. They belong to the Muslim community. The complainant married the appellant sometime in May 1930. The relationship appears to have been quite cordial for quite a long time. It is stated that the complainant has borne eight children to the appellant. This fact is not disputed. She has got a son aged about 23 and a daughter aged about 19, though one daughter given in marriage appears to have died and some of the children also have died.

The fact that the appellant has taken an Anglo-Indian girl as his second wife is not also disputed. It is stated that this girl has been converted into a Muslim and thereafter the appellant married her. According to the complainant this Anglo-Indian girl was a typist under the appellant. This is not disputed by the appellant. It is during her service under him that he has developed intimacy with her which has led to this ultimate marriage. Ordinarily, even when brothers fall out, the enmity is bitter. So seems to be the case when the husband and wife also fall out. The properties, most of them, seem to be in the name of the wife, the complainant.

It is alleged by the appellant that all these properties belong to him and that they were purchased benami in the name of his wife, the complainant. But the allegation of the complainant is that the properties belonged to her or that they were given to her by the appellant. We are not concerned in this case with the rights of the parties or their title to the properties, in whosoever name they may be, Suffice it to say that after the Anglo-Indian girl crossed the path of the complainant, trouble arose between her and the appellant.

The conduct of a husband carrying on with a typist under him would certainly evoke protest from a wife. Hot words must have passed between the husband and wife over this intimacy between him and this Anglo-Indian girl, who is said to be 30. Apparently, the husband must have attempted to dominate and indulge in outbursts against his wife. As a result of these misunderstandings, the wife left the house and went and remained with another friend. This friend is alleged by this appellant as having illicit intimacy with his wife.

His allegation has gone to this extent that when this friend, Sibatulla, who has been examined as P. W. 3, came one day to effect a reconciliation and stayed with him, that night he slept with her when the husband was out. The allegation has only to be made to be rejected. It is quite unnecessary to go into the truth or otherwise of this allegation as it seems to me that the incidents that have been mentioned in the notice have been got up for the purpose of justifying his conduct.

It is difficult to believe that the wife, who has given birth to about 8 children and has got a boy aged about 23 and a daughter aged about 19, should think at this late stage of her life of developing romance with another man and with that object should think of deserting her husband, with whom she has been living happily with all these years.

3. As already stated, when the husband and wife quarrelled, each attacked the other most bitterly and margin must be allowed for the anger which one developed against the other. The husband was very much enraged at the wife leaving him and as the law allows him to marry four wifes he has taken another wife, an Anglo-Indian, who, according to him has been converted into a Muslim. Equally, the complainant who has been his sole wife, must have got very much annoyed with the husband when he took a second wife at this late stage in his life. Her separation cannot for that reason be accounted as due to misconduct on her part. After going through the evidence I am satisfied that