MADANLAL Vs. SUDESH KUMARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by appellant Madan Lal (hereinafter to be referred to as the 'husband') against the judgment dated 8-12-1983 passed by Shri R.C. Jain, Additional District Judge, Delhi whereby the petition of the husband under Sec. 13(l)(i) and (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, as amended, seeking dissolution of his marriage by a decree of divorce, against his wife respondent No. 1 Sudesh Kumari (hereinafter to be referred to as the 'wife') was dismissed with costs.

(2.) . Parties were married to each other on 10-2-1977 in accordance with Hindu Rites and thereafter they lived together as husband and wife in premises No. 915, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi. On or about 10-8-77 the wife told the husband that she was not feeling well and thereafter on 12-8-1977 she complained of some pain in her abdomen and the husband immediately took her to Hindu Rao Hospital and got her admitted in the maternity ward where she gave birth to a male child at 12.35 A.M. on the night intervening 13/14th August 1977. The birth of this child, thus, took place after six months and four days of the marriage. The child was alive and weighed 5 pounds and was born after 6 months and 4 days of the marriage. It is alleged that this child was illegitimate having been conceived by the wife much prior to the marriage and this fact shocked him and also put him to shame and was tantamount to cruelty on the part of the wife towards him.

(3.) . The husband also alleged acts of adultery on the part of the wife with respondents 2 and 3 Laxman Dass and Jawahar Lal both before and after the solemnisation of the marriage, as per her own admission, and also one specific act of voluntary sexual intercourse of the wife with respondent No. 2 Laxman Dass in a room of a hotel in Hardwar in the evening of 28-6-1977. After returning from Hardwar the wife left for her parent's house where she stayed for six weeks and whereafter she returned to the husband's house and it was thereafter that on the night of 13/14th August 1977 she gave birth to the aforesaid child. Laxman Dass is the real maternal uncle of the husband and is also the real brother-in-law of the wife being the husband of her elder sister Pushpa and who had arranged the marriage between the parties as he had undue influence over the families of both of them.