SHANKARAPPA Vs. BASAMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question arising in this revision petition is whether a suit brought by a person claiming to be the wife of the defendant for an injunction restraining the defendant from contracting a second marriage is cognisable by a civil court.

(2.) The material facts are these: In the court of the Munsiff of Gulbarga, the plaintiff claiming to be the wife of the defendant instituted a suit on May 6, 1961 and the prayer portion of the plaint reads as follows:

(3.) In the written statement produced by the defendant, it was pleaded that about 7 years before the institution of the suit the plaintiff had been divorced and that such divorce was permissible by a custom in his community. He also pleaded that the only remedy available to the plaintiff was to seek a declaration under the provisions of The Hindu Marriage Act after the proposed marriage was solemnized, that the marriage between the defendant and the woman whom he proposed to marry was a void marriage, and that the suit brought by the plaintiff in the civil court was not maintainable. The court below tried the issue relating to jurisdiction as a preliminary issue and found no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the objection to jurisdiction was groundless. The petitioner contests the correctness of this conclusion reached by that Court.