ORDER
S.S. Sodhi, J.
1. To refuse maintenance
pendehte lite and expenses of litigation to
the wife and her minor child, merely to
pressurise the wife to reconcile her differences
with her husband, cannot, but be branded as
a patent misuse of the provisions of Section 24 of
the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The challenge
here is to be precisely such an order passed
by the Additional District Judge, Amritsar,
on Dec. 6, 1988, whereby, he declined
maintenance to the wife and minor son With
the observations, “I have kept the interest of
Gurmit Kaur and her son in the picture in
declining maintenance and litigation expenses
to her at This stage and hope that this would
quietly nudge her towards taking a less harsh
view of Gurraj Singh’s behaviour toward
her…..”
2. The impugned order thus being wholly unwarranted and contrary to law is accordingly hereby set aside and the matter is remitted to the trial court with the direction to decide the wife and minor son’s claim for maintenance and expenses of the litigation afresh, in accordance with law, The wife Gurmit Kaur shall, in addition, also be entitled to Rs. 1000/- as expenses of this litigation.
3. This petition stands accepted in these terms.