The High Court has inherent powers under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure to dismiss an appeal for non-compliance with a conditional order to pay maintenance and litigation expenses.

1. Ram Sarup appellant filed a petition under Section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. This petition was resisted by the respondent wife and was dismissed by the learned Senior Sub-Judge., Amritsar vide his order dated 8-3-1966. It is against this decree that the appellant has filed this appeal.

2. The respondent-wife claimed maintenance pendente lite and litigation expenses before this court and P. D. Sharma J., (as he then was) vide his order dated 14-12-1966, ordered that Smt. Janak respondent be paid maintenance allowance at the rate of Rs. 40/-per mensem from the date of her application in addition to Rs. 200/-as litigation expenses. It was ordered that the maintenance allowance and the litigation expenses should be paid within two months from that date. This order of this Court has not been complied with.

3. The case came up before me on 11-11-1971 when Mr. Aggarwal the learned counsel for the respondent, pointed out that the appellant had not paid the litigation expenses and the maintenance allowance as ordered by this court. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, I ordered that the appellant should pay the arrears of maintenance and the litigation expenses upto date till 13-12-1971 to the respondent-wife and in case he failed to pay the said arrears, it will be open to the counsel for the respondent to contend that the appeal be dismissed. This order of mine in fact made the hearing of the appeal conditional on the payment of the arrears of maintenance and the litigation expenses.

4. It is admitted by Mr. Roop Chand, the learned counsel for the appellant, that till today no maintenance allowance or the litigation expenses, as directed by this Court have been paid to the respondent by the appellant. It is, therefore, contended by Mr. Aggarwal, the learned counsel for the respondent, that the appeal filed by the husband appellant be dismissed as he has filed to comply with the conditional order passed by this court. On the other hand, Mr. Roop Chand, the learned counsel for the appellant contended that the hearing of the appeal be only deferred till the payment of such expenses, and it should not be dismissed as this Court has no power to pass such an order.

In a case reported in M/s. Ram Chand & Sons Sugar Mills Pvt. Ltd., Barabanki, (U. P ) V/s. Kanhayalal Bhargava, AIR 1966 SC 1899, it was held by their Lordships of the Supreme Court that whatever limitation are imposed by construction on the provision of Section 151 of the code of Civil Procedure they do not control the undoubted power of the Court conferred under Section 151 of the Code to make a suitable order to prevent the abuse of the process of the Court. It was made clear that the inherent power of a Court is in addition to and complementary to the powers expressly conferred under the Civil Procedure Code. But that power will not be exercised it its exercise is inconsistent with, or comes into conflict with, any of the powers expressly or by necessary implication conferred by the other provisions of the Code.

In my view, when conditional orders are passed by this Court, the inherent power vested under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure can be exercised in order to see that the said orders are complied with. There is no specific procedure for the compliance of the said order either under the Hindu Marriage Act or in the Civil Procedure Code and there is no other provisions forbidding the same course being adopted. A similar matter came up for consideration before a Division Bench of this Court in a case reported in Smt. Malkan Rani V/s. Krishan Kumar, AIR 1961 Punj 42. In that case, the trial court directed the husband, who was the petitioner in that case, to pay the wife maintenance pendente lite and litigation expenses but the said order was not complied with. The wife then made an application before the trial court that the proceedings be stayed till the said order was complied with. That application was rejected by the trial c