HITESH BHATNAGAR Vs. DEEPA BHATNAGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Marriages are made in heaven, or so it is said. But we are more often than not made to wonder what happens to them by the time they descend down to earth. Though there is legal machinery in place to deal with such cases, these are perhaps the toughest for the courts to deal with. Such is the case presently before us.

(2.) The appellant-husband and the respondent-wife got married according to the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 [hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'] in 1994, and are blessed with a daughter a year thereafter. Some time in the year 2000, due to differences in their temperaments, they began to live separately from each other and have been living thus ever since. Subsequently, in 2001, the parties filed a petition under Section 13B of the Act before the District Court, Gurgaon, for dissolution of the marriage by grant of a decree of divorce by mutual consent. However, before the stage of second motion and passing of the decree of divorce, the respondent withdrew her consent, and in view of this, the petition came to be dismissed by the Ld. Addl. District Judge, Gurgaon, though the appellant insisted for passing of the decree. The appellant, being aggrieved, has filed appeal No. F.A.O. No. 193 of 2003, before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The Learned Judge, by his well considered order, dismissed the appeal vide order dt. 08.11.2006. Being aggrieved by the same, the appellant is before us in this appeal.

(3.) We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and since the parties wanted to ventilate their grievances, we have heard them also.