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Shashi Bhushan Garg vs Anju Garg on 14 May, 2019

CRM-M-45469-2016
CRM-M-46994-2018 1

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH.

I.
CRM-M-45469-2016 (OM)
Date of Decision: 14.5.2019

Shashi Bhushan Garg

……….PETITIONER(s).

VERSUS

Smt. Anju Garg

……..RESPONDENT(s).

II.
CRM-M-46994-2018 (OM)

Shashi Bhushan Garg
……….PETITIONER(s).

VERSUS

Smt. Anju Garg
……..RESPONDENT(s).

CORAM:- HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJ SHEKHAR ATTRI

Present: Mr. Amar Vivek, Advocate,
for the petitioner.

Respondent in person with counsel
Mr. Vivek Gupta, Advocate
*******

RAJ SHEKHAR ATTRI, J.

This order shall dispose of the aforesaid two petitions as the

same are between the same parties. The facts are taken from CRM-M-

45469-2016 and the parties would be referred by their status in this

appeal.

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The present petition has been filed under Section 482 of the

Code of Criminal Procedure seeking quashing of impugned order dated

9.9.2016 (Annexure P-10) passed by learned Additional Sessions Judge,

Mansa upholding the order dated 3.1.2015 passed by learned Chief

Judicial Magistrate, Mansa whereby the application of the respondent

wife filed under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been

allowed.

Undisputedly, the petitioner was married with Smt. Anju

Garg (respondent herein). From this wedlock, two daughters namely

Shohrat Garg and Hasrat Garg were born. Smt. Anju Garg moved an

application under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure

asserting that she has been treated with cruelty and is a victim of

domestic violence.

Learned Chief Judicial Magistrate after considering the

evidence available on record, awarded her a sum of ` 15,000/- per month

towards maintenance etc.

Said order has been challenged by the petitioner by filing an

appeal on the grounds, inter alia, that the amount of maintenance is

highly exorbitant and he is unable to pay this amount. However, the

learned appellate court dismissed the same vide impugned order dated

9.9.2016.

I have heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through

the record as well as written arguments filed by the respondent.

Learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance upon

the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in SectionSudeep Chaudhary v. Radha

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Chaudhary; AIR 1999 SC 536, Himachal Pradesh High Court in SectionVinod

Kumar v. Smt. Shakuntala; 2016 ILR (H.P.) 286, Delhi High Court in

SectionRenu Mittal v. Anil Mittal; 2010 (7) RCR (Criminal) 1741; SectionRachna

Kathuria v. Ramesh Kathuria; Crl. M.C. No.130/2010 Crl. M.A.

No.504/2010 decided on 30.8.2010, Bombay High Court in SectionRavindra

Haribhau Karmarkar v. Shaila Ravindra Karrnarkar; 1992 Cril. J

1845, SectionVishal v. Sow Aparna; 2018 SCC Online Born 1207, SectionPrakash

Babulal Dangi v. The State of Maharashtra and anr. Crl. Writ Petition

No.3791 of 2016 decided on 10.10.2017 and Madras High Court in B.

SectionPrakash v. Deepa and minor Harini; Crl. RC (MD) No.453 decided on

28.7.2015.

In support of his contention, learned counsel for the

respondent has placed reliance on the judgments of Hon’ble Supreme

Court in Shamima Farooqui v. Shahid Khan; 2015 (2) RCR (Civil)

628, Kunapareddy @ Noonkala Shanka Balaji v. Kunapareddy

Swarna Kumari and another; 2016(3) RCR (Civil) 317, this Court in

Satpal v. Sheela and another; 2016 (2) RCR (Criminal) 297, Poonam v.

Vijay Kumar Jindal; 2015 (4) RCR (Criminal) 300; Satish Kumar v.

Kamaljit Kaur and another; 2015 (3) RCR (Criminal) 829, SectionVishal

Saxena v. Swati Bhatnagar; 2016 (2) RCR (Civil) 1022, SectionGunjan and

another v. Gaurav Kumar Bhatia; 2016 (3) RCR (Criminal) 578,

Rajasthan High Court in SectionMohd. Rafique v. State of Rajasthan and

others; 2016(4) RCR (Civil) 240, Delhi High Court in SectionGaurav

Manchanda v. Namrata Singh; Crl. Rev. No.343 of 2018 decided on

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27.2.2019, Richa Arya v. State of NCT of Delhi and another; 2016(2)

RCR (Criminal) 409; Bombay High Court in Abhijit Bhikaseth Auti v.

State of Maharashtra and another; 2008(19) RCR (Criminal) 426 and

Madhya Pradesh High Court in SectionYogendra Nath Dwivedi v. Smt. Vinita

Dwivedi and others; 2016 ILR (M.P.) 575.

I have given my thoughtful consideration to the rival
contentions and gone through the record.

The purpose and object of granting maintenance to destitute

women and children is to provide social justice to them and to prevent

vagerancy by compelling those who can support them, who are unable to

support themselves. The philosophy of social justice, as engraved in our

constitution, is multi facet – which demands rightness and fairness in all the

fields of life-which includes the political, the moral, religious and the social.

If the women of the country are undermined then the concept of social

justice will certainly erode. Hon’ble Supreme Court in Richa Mishra v.

State of Chhatisgarh 2016 AIR (SC) 753 has observed as under:-

“It is now realised that there is a bidirectional relationship
between economic development and women’s empowerment
defined as improving the ability of women to access the
constituents of development- in particular health, education,
earning opportunities, rights, and political participation. This
bidirectional relationship is explained by Prof. Amartya Sen
by propounding a theory that in one direction, development
alone can play a major role in driving down an equality
between men and women; in another direction, continuing
discrimination against women can hinder development. In
this scenario, empowerment can accelerate development.

From whichever direction the issue is looked into, it provides

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justification for giving economic empowerment to women. It
is, for this purpose, there is much emphasis on women
empowerment (as it leads to economic development) by
United Nations World Bank and other such Bodies.
Interestingly, the 2012 World Development Report (World
Bank 2011) adopts a much more nuanced message. While it
emphasizes the “business case” for women empowerment, it
mainly takes it as given that the equality between women and
men is a desirable goal in itself, and policies should aim to
achieve that goal. Poverty and lack of opportunity breed
inequality between men and women, so that when economic
development reduces poverty, the condition of women
improves on two counts: first, when poverty is reduced, the
condition of everyone, including women, improves, and
second, gender inequality declines as poverty declines, so the
condition of women improves more than that of men with
development. Economic development, however, is not
enough to bring about complete equality between men and
women. Policy action is still necessary to achieve equality
between genders. Such policy action would be
unambiguously justified if empowerment of women also
stimulates further development, starting a virtuous cycle.
Empowerment of women, thus, is perceived as equipping
them to be economically independent, self-reliant, with
positive esteem to enable them to face any situation and they
should be able to participate in the development activities.”

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in SectionBadshah v. Sou. Urmila

Badshah Godse and Anr., 2013 (4) RCR (Civil) 830, has observed as

under:-

“13.3. Thirdly, in such cases, purposive interpretation needs
to be given to the provisions of section 125, Code of

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Criminal Procedure While dealing with the application of
destitute wife or hapless children or parents under this
provision, the Court is dealing with the marginalized
sections of the society. The purpose is to achieve “social
justice” which is the Constitutional vision, enshrined in the
Preamble of the Constitution of India. Preamble to the
Constitution of India clearly signals that we have chosen the
democratic path under rule of law to achieve the goal of
securing for all its citizens, justice, liberty, equality and
fraternity. It specifically highlights achieving their social
justice. Therefore, it becomes the bounden duty of the Courts
to advance the cause of the social justice. While giving
interpretation to a particular provision, the Court is supposed
to bridge the gap between the law and society.

14. Of late, in this very direction, it is emphasised that the
Courts have to adopt different approaches in “social justice
adjudication”, which is also known as “social context
adjudication” as mere “adversarial approach” may not be
very appropriate. There are number of social justice
legislations giving special protection and benefits to
vulnerable groups in the society. Prof. Madhava Menon
describes it eloquently:

It is, therefore, respectfully submitted that “social context
judging” is essentially the application of equality
jurisprudence as evolved by Parliament and the Supreme
Court in myriad situations presented before courts where
unequal parties are pitted in adversarial proceedings and
where courts are called upon to dispense equal justice. Apart
from the social-economic inequalities accentuating the
disabilities of the poor in an unequal fight, the adversarial
process itself operates to the disadvantage of the weaker
party. In such a situation, the judge has to be not only
sensitive to the inequalities of parties involved but also

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positively inclined to the weaker party if the imbalance were
not to result in miscarriage of justice. This result is achieved
by what we call social context judging or social justice
adjudication.

15. The provision of maintenance would definitely fall in
this category which aims at empowering the destitute and
achieving social justice or equality and dignity of the
individual. While dealing with cases under this provision,
drift in the approach from “adversarial” litigation to social
context adjudication is the need of the hour.

16. The law regulates relationships between people. It
prescribes patterns of behavior. It reflects the values of
society. The role of the Court is to understand the purpose of
law in society and to help the law achieve its purpose. But
the law of a society is a living organism. It is based on a
given factual and social reality that is constantly changing.
Sometimes change in law precedes societal change and is
even intended to stimulate it. In most cases, however, a
change in law is the result of a change in social reality.
Indeed, when social reality changes, the law must change
too. Just as change in social reality is the law of life,
responsiveness to change in social reality is the life of the
law. It can be said that the history of law is the history of
adapting the law to society’s changing needs. In both
Constitutional and statutory interpretation, the Court is
supposed to exercise direction in determining the proper
relationship between the subjective and objective purpose of
the law.

17. Cardozo acknowledges in his classic
…no system of jus scriptum has been able to escape the need
of it”, and he elaborates: “It is true that Codes and Statutes
do not render the Judge superfluous, nor his work
perfunctory and mechanical. There are gaps to be filled.

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There are hardships and wrongs to be mitigated if not
avoided. Interpretation is often spoken of as if it were
nothing but the search and the discovery of a meaning which,
however, obscure and latent, had none the less a real and
ascertainable pre-existence in the legislator’s mind. The
process is, indeed, that at times, but it is often something
more. The ascertainment of intention may be the least of a
judge’s troubles in ascribing meaning to a stature.
Says Gray in his lecture
The fact is that the difficulties of so-called interpretation
arise when the legislature has had no meaning at all; when
the question which is raised on the statute never occurred to
it; when what the judges have to do is, not to determine that
the legislature did mean on a point which was present to its
mind, but to guess what is would have intended on a point
not present to its mind, if the point had been present.

18. The Court as the interpreter of law is supposed to supply
omissions, correct uncertainties, and harmonise results with
justice through a method of free decision-“libre recherche
sceintifique” i.e. “free Scientific research”. We are of the
opinion that there is a non-rebuttable presumption that the
Legislature while making a provision like Sectionsection 125 Code
of Criminal Procedure, to fulfill its Constitutional duty in
good faith, had always intended to give relief to the woman
becoming “wife” under such circumstances. This approach is
particularly needed while deciding the issues relating to
gender justice. We already have examples of exemplary
efforts in this regard. Journey from Shah Bano, AIR 1985 SC
945 to Shabana Bano, AIR 2010 SC 305 guaranteeing
maintenance rights to Muslim women is a classical example.

19. SectionIn Rameshchandra Daga v. Rameshwari Daga, 2005
(1) R.C.R.(Civil) 615 : AIR 2005 SC 422, the right of
another woman in a similar situation was upheld. Here the

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Court had accepted that Hindu marriages have continued to
be bigamous despite the enactment of the SectionHindu Marriage
Act in 1955. The Court had commented that though such
marriages are illegal as per the provisions of the Act, they are
not ‘immoral’ and hence a financially dependent woman
cannot be denied maintenance on this ground.

20. Thus, while interpreting a statute the court may not only
take into consideration the purpose for which the statute was
enacted, but also the mischief it seeks to suppress. It is this
mischief rule, first propounded in Heydon’s Case (1854) 3
Co. Rep. 7a, 7b which became the historical source of
purposive interpretation. The court would also invoke the
legal maxim construction ut res magis valeat guam pereat, in
such cases i.e. where alternative constructions are possible
the Court must give effect to that which will be responsible
for the smooth working of the system for which the statute
has been enacted rather than one which will put a road block
in its way. If the choice is between two interpretations, the
narrower of which would fail to achieve the manifest
purpose of the legislation should be avoided. We should
avoid a construction which would reduce the legislation to
futility and should accept the bolder construction based on
the view that Parliament would legislate only for the purpose
of bringing about an effective result. If this interpretation is
not accepted, it would amount to giving a premium to the
husband for defrauding the wife. Therefore, at least for the
purpose of claiming maintenance under Sectionsection 125, Code of
Criminal Procedure, such a woman is to be treated as the
legally wedded wife.

21. The principles of Hindu Personal Law have developed in
an evolutionary way out of concern for all those subject to it
so as to make fair provision against destitution. The manifest
purpose is to achieve the social objectives for making bare

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minimum provision to sustain the members of relatively
smaller social groups. Its foundation spring is humanistic. In
its operation field all though, it lays down the permissible
categories under its benefaction, which are so entitled either
because of the tenets supported by clear public policy or
because of the need to subserve the social and individual
morality measured for maintenance.

22.In taking the aforesaid view, we are also encouraged by
the following observations of this Court in Capt. SectionRamesh
Chander Kaushal v. Veena Kaushal (1978) 4 SCC 70:
The brooding presence of the Constitutional empathy for the
weaker sections like women and children must inform
interpretation if it has to have social relevance. So viewed, it
is possible to be selective in picking out that interpretation
out of two alternatives which advances the cause – the cause
of the derelicts.”

The petitioner has placed on record income tax return for the

year 2015-16 (Annexure P-13 colly) showing his annual income as `

4,03,804/-. Thus, the petitioner can easily pay the amount of maintenance

and same cannot be said to be exorbitant.

In view of the above and after going through the material

available on record, this Court is of the view that no case is made out by

the petitioner-husband to set aside the impugned orders dated 9.9.2016

and 3.1.2015 or to reduce the amount of maintenance.

Consequently, both the revision petitions filed by the

husband petitioner stands dismissed.

( RAJ SHEKHAR ATTRI)
May 14, 2019 JUDGE
Paritosh Kumar
Whether speaking/reasoned: Yes/No
Whether Reportable: Yes/No

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