S Vs. V

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has challenged the judgment dated 25th February, 2010 whereby the learned Trial Court dissolved the marriage between the parties by a decree of divorce on the ground of cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. For the sake of convenience, the respondent herein is referred to as "the petitioner" and the appellant is referred to as "the respondent", as per their nomenclature before the learned Trial Court.

(2.) The petitioner instituted a petition for divorce against the respondent under Sections 13(1)(ia) and (ib) of the Hindu Marriage Act on the averments that the parties were married according to the Hindu rites and ceremonies on 07th November, 1987; the respondent's behavior was cruel, unfaithful, harsh and abnormal toward the petitioner and other family members of the petitioner; respondent was in the habit of leaving her matrimonial home without any intimation or information to the petitioner and the respondent would telephonically call the petitioner that she had gone to some of her friends and she would be back soon; whenever the petitioner asked the respondent about her missing from home for days respondent would abuse and insult the petitioner and told him that he had no right to ask about the whereabouts of the respondent; on various occasions the respondent called the petitioner by bad names like "Haramzada", "Kutta", "Kamina", impotent etc.; the respondent deprived the petitioner from enjoying marital relations by refusing to cooperate and she often said that she had already enjoyed marital relations with some other persons and she was completely tired for any marital relations with the petitioner; the respondent left her matrimonial home at Shahdara, Delhi with her baggage when the petitioner was away to the place of his duty on 19th April, 2001 and the respondent gave a telephone call to his office that she had left the matrimonial home for good; more than an year passed since the respondent deserted the petitioner; the respondent was in habit of visiting the Dargah of Nizamuddin Aulia for seeking a saint's blessings for getting an issue where she came in contact with one Asgar Khan and developed frantic love for him; she moved in Asgar Khan's company from one town to another where she got herself photographed with Asgar Khan in amorous mood; the movement of the respondent with Asgar Khan from one town to another was without any information/intimation to the petitioner/husband; the respondent has indulged in adultery with Asgar Khan; having been constrained and anguished by the above said misdeeds of the respondent and finding himself alone, the petitioner shifted to his friend, Surender Singh's house in Mansarover Park, Shahdara more than a year back since the respondent had deserted him and had joined the company of Asgar Khan more than a year back; on 30th May, 2002, the respondent dropped two letters in her own hand at the aforesaid residential address of the petitioner in which the respondent admitted that she was in the company of Asgar Khan, and on 17th August, 1999, the respondent and the Asgar Khan both entered into a marriage by an agreement in the Patiala House Courts, New Delhi.

(3.) The respondent contested the above petition for denying the averments made by the petitioner. The respondent denied any relation with Asgar Khan. With respect to the photographs relied upon by the petitioner, the respondent pleaded that the photographs were of a play in which the petitioner and Asgar Khan had acted. The respondent further pleaded that she treated Asgar Khan as a brother being a fellow artist.