1. Being aggrieved by the concurrent judgments and decrees of the Courts below, directing maintenance and creating a charge over the properties, husband has filed the present appeal. For sake of convenience, the parties are addressed as per the litigative status in the lower Court.

2. The plaint averments are as follows:

The plaintiff is the legally wedded wife of the defendant. The marriage between the parties took place on 28.08.1985. It is the case of the plaintiff that at the time of marriage, her father had given 30 sovereigns of jewels and Rs.20,000/- as Sridhana. A female child was born out of the wedlock, in the year 1986. Thereafter, the defendant began to treat the plaintiff cruelly, by asking her to bring a motorcycle from her parent’s house, but the demand could not be complied with, by the parents of the plaintiff. On 15.04.1994, the defendant took away jewels and money from the plaintiff and started a finance business, at Dharapuram. Subsequently, the plaintiff conceived twice. As the scan report revealed a female child, the plaintiff was forced by the defendant to abort the child. Lastly, on 30.08.1997 in an intoxicating mood, the defendant drove away the