( 1 ) THIS is a plaintiffs appeal arising out of a suit for maintenance brought by her against her husband the defendant-respondent. She claimed maintenance for three years at the rate of Rs. 50/- per month and also claimed future maintenance at Rs. 100/- per month.

( 2 ) THE plaintiff alleged that she was the legally married wife of the respondent and she had lived with him for some time after her marriage, that her husband treated her cruelly and had driven her away after taking her clothes and ornaments and she was forced to come back to her fathers home and had been living with her father for eight years prior to the institution of the suit. She alleged that the defendant had remarried another woman and was not maintaining the appellant.

( 3 ) THE defendant-respondent contested the suit Inter alia on the ground that the parties were not married according to legal rites and since the plaintiff was impotent she could not be legally married to the respondent. It was alleged that the genital organs of the plaintiff were not normal and she was unfit for sexual intercourse and was incapable of begetting children and consequently the marriage between the parties was a