JUDGMENT

Rafique, J. - This appeal arises out of a suit for maintenance brought by the plaintiff-respondent, Musammat Personi, a Hindu wife, against her husband, the defendant-appellant.

2. The claimed Rs. 5 per mensem as maintenance on the ground that her husband had taken to himself another wife and had since then, been ill-treating her (the plaintiff-respondent) and had turned her out of the house declining to support her anymore.

3. The defendant-appellant resisted the suit by denying the alleged ill-treatment and expulsion of the plaintiff-respondent. He further said that she was a woman of bad temper and worse manners. She was unable to cook meals and do other household work on account of which he had to take another and more suitable wife to himself. The plaintiff-respondent, he said, had been abducted from his house by her father who had instigated her to bring the present suit and made her children to return to him. He was willing to support her if she went back to live with him.

4. The learned Munsif of Saharanpur, in whose Court the suit was brought, came to the conclusion, on a well-considered judgment, that no legal cruelty had been proved and dismissed the claim. On appeal, the learned Subordinate Judge, though agreeing with the first Court that no cruelty or ill-treatment had been proved, was of opinion that "there were ample circumstances to justify the conclusion that the woman owing to the conduct of her husband was in extreme mental agony." And that the said circumstances taken with the presence of a second wife in the house entitled the plaintiff-respondent to live separately from her husband and claim maintenance. He accepted the appeal and reversing the decree of the first Court, decreed the claim of the plaintiff-respondent. The husband has preferred a second appeal to this Court,

5. The learned Counsel for the appellant contends that the taking of a second wife by a Hindu or the unequal treatment of the two wives by him or both taken together does not amount to cruelty in the legal sense of the word which would enable the aggrieved wife to live separately from her husband and claim separate maintenance. The allegation of cruelty, it is said, must be borne out by evidence which establishes actual violence by the husband of such a character as to endanger personal health or safety of the wife or a reasonable apprehension of such violence. In the present case, both the lower Courts have found that no violence of such a character was used by the defendant appellant. The lower Appellate Court misapprehended the law in thinking that the mental agony caused to the plaintiff-respondent by the re-marriage of the defendant-appellant or by her neglect or unkind conduct to her entitled her to seek for separate maintenance.

6. The learned Counsel has cited a number of cases in support of his argument, some of which are given below:

7. Jeebo Dhon Bungah v. Musammat Sundhoo 17 W.R. 522 Sitanath Mukerjee v. Srimutty Haimabutty Debi 24 W.R. 377; Yamunnabai v. Narayan Narishwar Pandse 1 B. 164; Arumugam v. Talukanam 7 M. 187; Binda v. Kaunsilia 13 A. 126, (1891) A.W.N. 18; Dular Koer v. Dwarka Nath Misser 34 C. 971 Halsbury's Laws of England, Volume XVI, page 473.

8. For the respondent, the reply is that under the Hindu law, the conduct of a Hindu husband, which tends to disgrace the wife, is a sufficient reason for her to live apart from him and to claim separate maintenance. It has been found by the lower Court that the defendant-appellant wanted the plaintiff-respondent, to live in subjection to and under the orders of his second wife. Such a position was an intolerable means of her disgrace and the plaintiff-respondent could never submit to it. She should, therefore, he allowed to live with her parents and the defendant-appellant should give her Rs. 5 per month for her support.

9. The learned Vakil for the plaintiff-respondent relies on the passage given at page 133 of Colebroke's Hindu Law Vol. II, Bk.. 4. It is further argu