Double Jeopardy & Maintenance — KSLU Bnss Notes

Double Jeopardy & Maintenance

Double jeopardy (S.337) — embodying autrefois acquit / autrefois convict (“formerly acquitted / formerly convicted”) and Article 20(2) — bars a second trial for the same offence on the same facts after a valid acquittal or conviction. It does not bar a trial for a distinct offence, but the related rule of issue-estoppel prevents the prosecution from re-proving a fact already decided in the accused’s favour (Pritam Singh; Maqbool Hussain).

Maintenance (S.144) is a quick, secular remedy compelling a person with sufficient means who neglects them to maintain his wife (including, since Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, a divorced wife who has not remarried), his legitimate or illegitimate minor children, and his father or mother unable to maintain themselves. A wife forfeits the right if she lives in adultery, refuses without sufficient reason to live with the husband, or they live separately by mutual consent.