A pauper plaintiff can only be required to furnish security for costs in exceptional circumstances.

ORDER :- This civil revision petition is against the order of the learned Subordinate Judge of Vellore directing the petitioner to furnish security in the sum of Rs. 500 towards the cost of the suit. The petitioner sought leave to file the suit in forma pauperis and she was permitted to file the suit in forma pauperis and the suit was numbered. The suit was one for maintenance and enforcement of a charge against the properties of her deceased husband. The husband is said to have executed in the year 1929 a deed under which he undertook to pay a sum of Rs. 30 per month towards the maintenance for the first wife with whom he could not live amicably, and also a sum of Rs. 50 every year for her clothing. The petitioner is the first wife of the husband, and the husband married a second wife. On the occasion of the second marriage, this settlement appears to have taken place.

2. The case of the petitioner is that under this agreement which is a registered one, she was being paid maintenance until the death of the husband which took place in 1935. Thereafter these amounts of Rs. 30 per month and Rs. 50 per annum are said to have been paid by the step-son of the petitioner until the year 1944. In 1947 this step-son, who figures as the first defendant in the suit, mortgaged the properties to the 2nd defendant, Varalakshmi Fund at Vellore represented by its Managing Director for a sum of Rs. 5000.

The first defendant did not pay this mortgage debt and the second defendant brought a suit and obtained a decree. In execution of this decree the property was brought to sale and has since been purchased in auction by the 2nd defendant, the Fund, itself.

3. On an application made by the 2nd defendant-fund-calling upon the petitioner to furnish security for the suit to which the 2nd defendant is a party, the learned Subordinate Judge being of the opinion that the petitioner is a puppet in the hands of the 1st defendant, her step-son, directed that the petitioner should furnish security in the sum of Rs. 500. It is this order that is now being sought to be revised by the petitioner.

4. There is absolutely no rule prohibiting the court from directing a pauper plaintiff to furnish security in fit and proper cases. One such case was the subject-matter of a decision in Ramaswami Pillai v. Krishnammal, AIR 1935 Mad 230 (A). There it was held that since the plaintiff, who was permitted to sue the defendant in forma pauperis, was merely a puppet in the hands of a relation of hers and that since the suit itself was not bona fide, the plaintiff was directed to furnish security. But so far as the present facts are concerned, I do not think that this decision would apply, because it cannot be said that the petitioner has no bona fide claim against the deceased husband or against his estate inherited by the first defendant to claim maintenance as long as she remains a widow without having remarried.

5. Mr. Seshachalam, learned counsel for the respondent, contended that the learned Subordinate Judge was right in having directed the furnishing of security on the fact that this petitioner was just playing into the hands of the first respondent and therefore she was not entitled to continue the suit without furnishing security. I do not think I can agree with the argument of the learned counsel. The suit is not merely against the contesting respondent but is also against her step-son to enforce her claim, which she is entitled to claim under the document executed by her late husband. It cannot be held that the suit is mala fide. It may be that she kept quiet from the year 1944 right upto the time of the filing of the suit. But there is nothing that could be pitted against her by way of any bar of limitation or her rights being forfeited by reason of any circumstances that have arisen, since 1944.

Her case is that she has been asking the step-son to continue to pay her the maintenance as he was paying for 8 or 9 years after the death of the husband of the pet