Right to enhanced maintenance due to change of circumstances sustainable.

S. RAMACHANDRA IYER, C.J. :- The short question for determination in this appeal is whether a Hindu wife who had agreed to receive maintenance at a particular rate, binding herself not to claim a higher rate even if the circumstances were to change, could maintain a suit for increase of maintenance under Section 25 of Act 78 of 1956. The respondent is the widow of one Rama Aiyar, who took to a second wife, and later, adopted a son. In O. S. No. 329 of 1924 on the file of the District Munsif, Tiruvarur, the respondent sued for maintenance from her husband. There was a compromise of that suit, by which the defendants therein agreed to pay her a sum of Rs. 85 per year; it was also stipulated that the respondent had no right to ask for anything more. A decree was passed in terms of the compromise, which charged certain properties for the due performance of the maintenance. After the passing of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, the respondent came forward with a claim that the maintenance fixed under the compromise decree in O S. No. 329 of 1924 was insufficient to meet her needs, having regard to the present changed circumstances, and that she should be paid something more. On a contest being raised by the second wife, and the adopted son of the respondents deceased husband, the suit was dismissed by the trial Court. That decision was affirmed on appeal. But on a further appeal by the respondent to this Court, Ananthanarayanan, J., has set aside the judgments of the lower Courts and remanded the case for fixing proper maintenance.

2. In this appeal against the judgment of the learned Judge, Mr. A. Nagarajan contends that, as the maintenance decree was one made on the basis of a compromise, it would no longer be open to the respondent to ask for an enhancement of the maintenance. In support of the contention, learned counsel referred to the decisions in A. Surya Chandra Mohanleswara Rao v. A. Durgamba, 46 Mad LJ 189 : (AIR 1924 Mad 687) and Kameshwaramma v. Thammanna, 1939-2 Mad LJ 460 : (AIR 1939 Mad 798). It was held in those cases that, where a widow agreed to receive a fixed sum for her maintenance giving up expressly her right to claim an increase in future even if circumstances were to change, it would be a valid agreement which would bind her for the rest of her lifetime. There can be no doubt that, if the respondent were to rely on her right under the Hindu law for being maintained out of the properties of her husband, the principles recognised in these decisions will preclude her from obtaining an enhancement of the maintenance, having regard to the covenant she entered into at the time and as part of the compromise decree aforesaid.

3. But notwithstanding such an agreement, the statute has provided now for a widow being maintained in accordance with the changed circumstances of the times. Section 25, which is relevant in this connection, says :

"The amount of maintenance whether fixed by a decree of Court or by agreement, either before or after the commencement of this Act, may be altered subsequently if there is a material change in the circumstances justifying such alteration." The terms of the section are very clear; the right given thereunder would supersede any contract disabling the wife from asking for more. After all the true principle is that a person liable to maintain must do so and it will be indeed inequitable for that obligation to be whittled down by technical rules like res judicata and binding nature of a contract. The statute has therefore provided for the agreed maintenance to be enhanced if need be in conformity with the changed circumstances in the case. Mr. Nagarajan however contends that Section "25 has done nothing more than to codify the preexisting law and that it cannot be read as meaning that additional right is given to a wife or a widow, who, under a solemn agreement, had agreed to take for all time a fixed rate of maintenance. We do not find any warrant for any such content