9911796707
TMI Blog1957 (7) TMI 48X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 16 without issue. After his death, the plaintiff filed O. S. No. 41 of 1923 for recovering maintenance from the members of the family. That suit was compromised and. under the compromise decree made on dated 2nd August 1924, she was awarded maintenance at the rate of ₹ 240/- per year. It was also agreed between the parties that the plaintiff should not raise any dispute claiming enhanced rate of maintenance and the dependants should not raise any dispute for reducing that rate. Pursuant to the compromise, the plaintiff had been receiving maintenance at the agreed rate till she filed the present suit. In the suit, she claimed that the family had become very rich and that in the changed circumstances, she would be entitled to maintenanc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The question is when the parties agreed not to claim either enhancement of maintenance or reduction, as the case may be, and on that basis a certain amount was fixed as maintenance, is it open to either of them to go behind the decree? This question is directly covered by the decisions of two Division Benches of the Madras High Court. 7. The validity of a contract by a Hindu widow with her husband's coparceners to receive a fixed maintenance per annum and not to claim any increase in future even in the case of changed circumstances was considered by Phillips and Venkata Subba Rao JJ. in Mohieswara Rao v. Durgamba, ILR 47 Mad. 308: (AIR 1924 Mad 687). After noticing the cases cited at the Bar, the learned Judge observed at p. 310 (o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nce Act, 1956 (Act LXXVIII of 1956). The Act became law on 21-12-1956 when it received the assent of the President. Section 25 of the Act says: The amount of maintenance whether fixed by a decree of Court or by agreement, either before or after the commencement of this Act, may be altered subsequently if there is a material change in the circumstances justifying such alteration. 10. Learned counsel for the respondents contends that this section does not enlarge the preexisting right of the widow for maintenance but only gives a statutory recognition to it. In other words, he says that, if there was an agreement awarding maintenance at a particular rate, the widow would be entitled under the section to claim an enhanced rate if there ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nces. 11. Learned counsel for the respondents then argues that, even if Section 25 can be invoiced, it would not help the appellant as her husband died before the Act came into force. To put it differently, the argument is that Section 25 applies only to a widow, whose husband died after the Act came into force. The provisions of Section 25 do not impose any such restriction, or limitation. The Act is an' amending and codifying Act. Under Section 4, save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, the pre-existing law ceased to apply with respect to the matter for which provision is made in the Act and in so far as it is inconsistent with any of the provisions contained therein. Therefore, where the Act makes any provision for a giv ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion 22(1) a dependant, who obtained a share in the estate of a Hindu dying after the commencement of the Act. Where the statute intends to limit the operation of a particular provision to a Hindu dying after the Act came into force, it specifically says so as in the Section. Sub-section (2) becomes necessary us, after the Act, some dependants described in Section 21 acquired right to inherit the property of the deceased under the Hindu Succession Act and, therefore, it has been enacted with a view to avoid conferring a double benefit on them. 13. A combined reading of the provisions of Sub-sections (1) and (2) indicates that while Sub-section (1) imposes a liability on a heir and confers a correlative right on the dependant to claim mai ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
