Desertion and maintenance: a husband's second marriage can justify the wife living separately and claiming support.

Desertion in law requires intentional, permanent abandonment without consent and without reasonable cause; it is not established by mere separation. In maintenance proceedings, a wife may live separately and claim maintenance where the husband's conduct provides sufficient cause. The Madhya Pradesh High Court noted that the husband's second marriage, together with the wife's temporary stay at her parental home to attend to her ailing mother, justified separate residence. The revisional court's finding of wilful desertion was set aside because it misconstrued the legal test for desertion, and fresh evidence could not be introduced in Section 482 CrPC proceedings. The maintenance award was restored in favour of the wife.

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Issues: Whether the wife was disentitled to maintenance on the ground of desertion, and whether the husband's second marriage furnished sufficient reason for her to live separately and claim maintenance.

Analysis: Desertion in law requires intentional permanent forsaking and abandonment of one spouse by the other without consent and without reasonable cause, and it is not merely withdrawal from a place. In proceedings for maintenance, the relevant inquiry is whether the wife had sufficient reason to live separately from the husband. The evidence accepted by the trial court showed that the husband had contracted a second marriage, and that circumstance, coupled with the wife's temporary stay at her parental home to attend to her ailing mother, provided just cause for living apart. The revisional court's view that the wife had wilfully deserted the husband proceeded on a misconception of the legal meaning of desertion and could not be sustained. Fresh evidence could not properly be introduced in proceedings under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Conclusion: The wife was not guilty of desertion, and the husband's second marriage gave her sufficient reason to live separately and claim maintenance.

Final Conclusion: The order quashing the maintenance award was set aside, and the maintenance granted by the trial court was restored in favour of the wife.

Ratio Decidendi: In maintenance proceedings, a wife is entitled to live separately and claim maintenance where the husband's conduct, including a proved second marriage, furnishes sufficient cause, and a finding of desertion cannot stand unless it satisfies the legal requirement of intentional abandonment without reasonable cause.

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