No inherent power to restore a maintenance petition dismissed for default after final disposal under CrPC procedure.

A Magistrate dealing with a maintenance petition under Section 125 CrPC has no inherent power to restore a petition dismissed for default or to recall a final disposal order unless the statute expressly permits it. The proceeding may be quasi-civil in character, but the Magistrate remains bound by the Code; once the petition is finally dismissed, the court becomes functus officio. Section 126(3) concerns costs and does not authorise restoration, and the bar on alteration or review of final orders prevents the Magistrate from setting aside the default order. The proper remedy for an aggrieved party is revision before the competent court.

---

---

Issues: Whether a Magistrate has inherent power to restore a maintenance petition under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 dismissed for default, and whether the Magistrate can recall or set aside such a default order after disposal of the maintenance proceeding.

Analysis: Proceedings under Section 125 are of a quasi-civil nature, but the Magistrate is still a creature of the Criminal Procedure Code and cannot assume inherent powers unless the statute confers them. The Code does not contain any provision empowering a subordinate criminal court to review or recall a final order dismissing a maintenance petition for default. Section 126(3) concerns costs and does not authorize restoration. Once the maintenance petition stood dismissed and the matter was finally disposed of, the Magistrate became functus officio. The bar against alteration or review of a final order under Section 362 applies, and the remedy of an aggrieved party lies in revision before the competent court, not before the Magistrate himself.

Conclusion: The Magistrate had no power to restore the maintenance petition dismissed for default and no power to set aside the default order. The restoration order was therefore without jurisdiction.

Ratio Decidendi: A subordinate criminal court has no inherent power to review, recall, or restore a final order dismissing a maintenance petition for default in the absence of express statutory authority; once the matter is finally disposed of, the court becomes functus officio and the aggrieved party must seek redress in revision.

---