Civil Revision No. 5944 of 2011 --1-- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH Civil Revision No. 5944 of 2011 Date of decision. 26.09.2011 Gurdeep Singh .... Petitioner Versus Karamjit Kaur ...... Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIJENDER SINGH MALIK Present: Mr.JPS Sidhu, Advocate for the petitioner. **** Vijender Singh Malik, J. Gurdeep Singh, the husband, who had proceeded against the respondent Karamjit Kaur, his wife, by way of petition under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955(for short 'the Act') has brought this revision petition under the provisions of Article 227 of the Constitution of India for setting aside the order dated 19.08.2011 (Annexure P-1) passed by learned District Judge, Mansa, whereby a sum of Rs.2000/- per month has been fixed as maintenance pendente lite and a sum of Rs.6000/- has been fixed as litigation expenses under the provisions of section 24 of the Act. Karamjit Kaur has claimed herself to be the legally wedded wife of the petitioner. She has claimed that she was turned out of her matrimonial home firstly in December 2006 but was rehabilitated with the intervention of Women Cell, Mansa. She was again turned out of her Civil Revision No. 5944 of 2011 --2-- matrimonial home in April 2007. She has claimed that she has no source of income and is unable to maintain herself and to defend the litigation. She has added that the petitioner has 10 acres of fertile land, pucca house, running a dairy farm and his monthly income is not less than Rs.50,000/-. Therefore, she has prayed for Rs.15,000/- per month as maintenance pendente lite and a sum of Rs.50,000/- for litigation expenses. Resisting the application, the petitioner had claimed that the respondent had filed an application under section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which was pending in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mansa. He had claimed that the respondent herself is owner of 2 acres of land having inherited the same from her father and that she is in a position to maintain herself. He denied having any land and has claimed that he is having a meagre income and manages the life with great difficulty. Hearing learned counsel for the parties, learned District Judge, Mansa has allowed the application and fixed a sum of Rs.2000/- per month as maintenance pendente lite payable to the wife from the date of application and a sum of Rs.6000/- as litigation expenses. The said order is questioned by the husband by way of this revision-petitioner. The argument of learned counsel for the petitioner is two fold. The first is that the respondent herself owns two acres of land and she is in a position to maintain herself. The second limb of his argument is that the petitioner has a meagre income and hardly manages life with that income. Civil Revision No. 5944 of 2011 --3-- Learned District Judge, Mansa has taken note of these submissions and has found no document to have been placed on record to show that the respondents owns any agricultural land or has any income from any such property. The document placed on the record only revealed the land to be owned by Mehan Singh, father of the respondent and the same is shown to have been mutated in the names of his sons to the exclusion of the respondent. The plea of the husband that he has meagre income is also taken note of and being alive to the submissions of both the sides, the impugned order has been passed. Even an able bodied person, who works as labourer at construction sites earns more than Rs.6000/- per month nowadays. If the petitioner does not have any other source of income and is dependent on labour work only, he still can earn Rs.6000/- per month. It is the duty of the husband to maintain his wife and 1/3rd of the assumed income of the petitioner could certainly be allowed as maintenance pendente lite. Therefore, I find no reason to say that the amount awarded by learned District Judge, Mansa to the wife is in any way excessive. For the aforesaid reason, the revision petition is found to have no merit and is dismissed. (VIJENDER SINGH MALIK) JUDGE 26.09.2011 dinesh