RENU VIJ Vs. SURINDER KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The short question of law raised in this petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is the scope of the words "the parties to the marriage last resided together" as used in Section 19 (iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, giving ierritorial jurisdiction to the Court.

(2.) The respondent (husband) brought a petition before the District Judge, Delhi for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce under Section 13(1) (ia), (ib) and (iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 as amended by the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The marriage between the parties was solemnized at Agra on May I, 1980 according to Hindu rites and ceremonies. It is alleged in the petition that after the marriage, the husband brought the petition herein (wife) in Doli by bus from Agra to Delhi to his matrimonial home, that the husband tried for sexual intercourse with the wife but the wife refused and that the husband came to know from her abnormal behaviour at the reception and thereafter, in the hotel room that the wife was possibly suffering from some mental disorder much before marriage. I may very briefly cote other allegations in the petition that the husband consulted certain Maulvies who performed Jhara on the wife who showed slight improvement. Later on, the husband took the wife to Dr. S. B. Mathur, Psychiatrist on the morning of May 5, 1980 when he expressed the opinion that the wife was suffering from mental disorder and the required long treatment. On further medical advice, the wife was got admitted in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital where she was under treatment for a period of about 10 days but there was little improvement in her condition, It is further averred that the wife became violent in the evening of June 17, 1980 and evinced suicidal tendencies and that the husband wanted to take the wife to Shahdara Mental Hospital but was resisted by her father. Ultimately on June 22, 1980 the father of the wife took her to Agra.

(3.) Further allegations are made that the common relatives approached the husband and his parents that the wife had been cured and assured that she was fit to lead a normal happy married life. She was again brought to Delhi on February 22, 1981 to the house of the husband. It is further stated that she again used to become aggressive and violent and being fed up with her abnormal behaviour, the husband informed her father about her abnormal mental condition. She was ultimately taken back to Agra on March 8, 1981. The jurisdiction of the Courts at Delhi in invoked on the allegations "that the parties last resided together at Delhi within the local limits of ordinary original civil jurisdiction of this Hon'ble Court".