§ Again considered in Committee
§ Question again proposed, That the Amendment be made
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe object of the Amendment is to place the husband and the wife on a basis of equality. The Clause as drafted clearly draws a distinction between the spouses in that a husband can apply only in the limited circumstance in which he can apply in the magistrates' court under the Matrimonial Proceedings (Magistrates' Courts) Act 1960, Sections 1(1)(i) and 2(1)(c). At common law, a husband has a duty to maintain his wife, but there is no corresponding duty for a wife to maintain her husband. Parliament, by enacting the 1960 Act, has, in effect, placed a duty on the wife to maintain her husband in the limited circumstances there set out, and it is these which are repeated in Clause 6(1)(b).
Merely to provide, as the Amendment would do, that an order can be made if a wife is guilty of wilful neglect to maintain her husband, would not work unless it were made clear when the wife is under a duty to maintain. This seems to us to be the obstacle to this Amendment, which I ask the Committee to reject.
§ Sir D. RentonIn view of the explanation given by the Solicitor-General, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn
§ Clause 6 ordered to stand part of the Bill
§ Clause 7 ordered to stand part of the Bill