Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.125 – Maintenance – Appellant-wife married to respondent no.2-husband according to Islamic customs and had two children – Husband filed divorce suit against the appellant in the ‘Court of Kazi’ which came to be dismissed in terms of the compromise between the parties – Three years later, husband filed for divorce in the ‘Court of (Darul Kaja) Kajiyat’ which was allowed – Thereafter, appellant filed suit u/s.125 seeking maintenance for herself and two children – Family court allowed the petition for maintenance for the children, however rejected the appellant’s claim for maintenance on the finding that husband did not leave the appellant rather she left the matrimonial home – Revision petition by the appellant – Dismissed by the High Court – Correctness:
Held: Reasoning by the Family court that since it was the second marriage of the parties, there is no possibility of demand of dowry by husband, as he would be trying to rehabilitate his house is unknown to the canons of law and is based on mere conjecture and surmise – Family court could not have presumed that second marriage for both parties would necessarily entail no dowry demand – Family court, taking note of the compromise deed, opined that it was the appellant’s character and conduct which led to the rift in the conjugal life of the parties based on the purported fact that the appellant in the compromise deed had admitted to her mistake, however in the compromise deed there was no such admission – Very basis/reasoning for rejecting the appellant’s claim for maintenance appears to be ex-facie unsustainable – Maintenance could not have been denied to the appellant-wife under the prevailing circumstances – Respondent no.2 to pay Rs.4,000/- pm as maintenance to the appellant – Maintenance to be paid from the date of filing of the maintenance petition before the Family Court – Order of family court and impugned order set aside. [Paras 14, 15]
Judicial fora – Informal justice delivery system – ‘Court of Kazi’, ‘Court of (Darul Kaja) Kajiyat’, ‘Sharia Court’ – Recognition in law:
Held: ‘Court of Kazi’, ‘Court of (Darul Kaja) Kajiyat’, ‘Sharia Court’ etc. by whatever name styled have no recognition in law – Any declaration/decision by such bodies, by whatever name labelled, is not binding on anyone and is unenforceable by resort to any coercive measure – Only way such declaration/decision can withstand scrutiny in the eye of law could be when the affected parties accept such declaration/decision by acting thereon or accepting it and when such action does not conflict with any other law – Even then, such declaration/decision, at best, would only be valid inter-se the parties that choose to act upon/accept the same, and not a third-party. [Para 23]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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