A Vs. B

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner under Ss. 10, 18 and 19 of the Indian Divorce Act. Petitioner is the wife and the respondent is the husband. The petitioner is a member of the Church of South India and the respondent is a member of Syrian Jacobite Christian Community.

(2.) At the time of marriage, the petitioner was a practising Gynaecologist after having passed her M.B.B.S. and D.G.O. and at present she is employed at S.U.T. Hospital, Trivandrum. The respondent is an Engineer employed in Traco Cables Ltd., a Public sector Undertaking of the Government of Kerala. Their marriage was solemnized on 29-11-1993 at Syrian Jacobite Puthen Church, Kundara as per the religious custom prevailing among the member of the Syrian Jacobite Church. It was an arranged marriage. The proposal for the marriage appeared in the matrimonial column of the Malayala Manorama, on behalf of the respondent. This was followed by negotiation among the members of the petitioner's and respondent's families and the marriage was later settled.

(3.) At the time of negotiation, it was represented to the petitioner that the respondent had already secured a highly paid job in Saudi Arabia, that he would take the petitioner with him to that country immediately after the marriage and that the respondent would secure for the petitioner a suitable job there. The respondent has also certain papers and documents written in arabic to show that he secured a job in Saudi Arabia. The respondent and his parents also represented to the petitioner and her parents that he had to join duty in Saudi Arabia by the middle of December, 1993 and on that ground, he urged the petitioner and her parents to get the marriage solemized within the shortest possible time. It is alleged in the petition that believing the representations of the respondent and his parents the marriage was hurriedly solemnized dispensing with the usual religious practice of announcing three banns of marriage on three consecutive Sundays in the Church. The negotiation for the marriage started during the second week of November 1993 and the betrothal was fixed on 18-11-1993 and the marriage was solemnized on 29-11-1993.