Madras High Court
Kamala Gangalamma vs Venkatarami Reddi on 1 December, 1949
Equivalent citations: AIR1950MAD385, AIR 1950 MADRAS 385
ORDER Panchapakesa Ayyar, J.
Deliberate attribution of immorality falsely to a wife will certainly fall under the definition of legal cruelty and entitle a wife to live separately from such a husband and claim separate maintenance. Chanakya, the great Prime Minister of the Mauryas, has proclaimed this more than 2200 years ago in his Artha Sastra. In India, this kind of thing has always been considered legal cruelty though not small beatings of wife, cessation of conjugal relations with her for long periods of Deeksha etc. So the petitioner was certainly entitled to live separately from the respondent and claim separate maintenance from him. On the evidence I fix the quantum of maintenance at ten rupees a month payable from the date of the filing of the petition in the lower Court by the petitioner.