NARAYANA RATNAMA Vs. ACHUTHAN RAMAKRISHNAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition arises out of proceedings for dissolution of marriage filed by the husband against his wife alleging inter alia that they are governed by the Travancore Ezhava Regulation, 1100. The main ground raised in the revision is that the court below went wrong in assuming that the parties are marumakkathayees. The contention of the revision petitioner, who is the wife, is that the parties are makkathayees and that the provisions of the Travancore Ezhava Regulation, 1100 have no application to them.

(2.) The petition was filed under S.7 of the Travancore Ezhava Regulation, 1100, which provides that marriage between parties governed by the said Regulation is dissolved only in one of the following ways: "(i) by the death of either party; or (ii) by mutual consent evidenced by a registered document; or (iii) by a formal order of dissolution as hereinafter provided." S.8 of the Regulation entitles either the husband or the wife to present a petition for dissolution of the marriage. No specific grounds, as in the case of Indian Divorce Act or the Hindu Marriages Act, need be alleged or proved for securing dissolution of the marriage under the Ezhava Regulation, 1100. The position under the Ezhava Regulation, 1100 appears, to be analogous to that under the corresponding provisions in the Madras Marumakkathayam Act.

(3.) Though in the memorandum of civil revision petition various contentions with particular reference to the maintainability of the petition for dissolution were raised, they were not pressed at the time of hearing, the revision petitioner taking a very reasonable and practical view of the position when she was told that her husband had already married another woman before the revision petition was filed in this Court, in the bona fide belief that the proceeding for dissolution of marriage had come to an end. The surviving question relates to the compensation to be awarded to the wife. The court below has awarded a sum of Rs. 500/- in favour of the divorced wife.