Savitribai Widow Of Dhakji Balcrustna vs Luximibai Widow Of Ganoba Ananta, And ... on 1 May, 1878
15. The question still remains whether the plaintiff is entitled to separate maintenance. The burden lies upon her to show the special circumstances which entitle her to a separate maintenance. Under the Hindu law the right of a wife to maintenance is a matter of personal obligation on the husband. It rests on the relations arising from the marriage, and is not dependent on or qualified by a reference to the possession of any property by the husband. The first duty of a Hindu wife, however, is to submit to her husband's authority and stay under his roof, and not to quit his house without any adequate excuse or justifying cause. If, however, the husband by reason of his misconduct, or cruelty in the sense in which that term is used by the English Matrimonial Courts, or by his refusal to maintain her, or for any other justifying cause, makes it compulsory or necessary for her to live apart from him, he must be deemed to have deserted her, and she will be entitled to separate maintenance and residence. Is the desertion of the plaintiff by her husband following upon a denial of the marriage a justifying cause for allowing her separate maintenance ? The texts collected in Savitribai v. Luximibai and Sadasiv Ganoba (1878) I.L.R. 2 Bony 573, 597-98 seem to show that a husband who deserts a " faultless wife " or a wife "obedient to his commands" is bound to maintain her even though living apart. A wife forsaken without fault may, according to Yajnavalkya, even compel her husband to pay a third of his wealth, or if poor, to provide maintenance for her: see Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law, Vol. 2, Book IV, 72. This is, however, a penal provision, and has been rarely enforced by the Courts.