KARTHIYAYANI AMMA Vs. NARAYANAN NAIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) DEFENDANT is the appellant and the plaintiff is the respondent. Plaintiff Narayanan Nair married the defendant Karthiyayini Amma on 5th May, 1961 at the Thiruvangad Sree Ramaswami Temple in accordance with the customs of the community to which they belonged. ' In that wedlock, a child was born and she was named Mynavathi. The conjugal relationship lasted for five years. Then the spouses lived apart for about two years and five months. Plaintiff filed an application for dissolution of marriage in the Munsiffs Court, tellicherry as O. P. No. 5/1966. An order of divorce was obtained. According to the plaintiff, even though the marriage was dissolved, certain mediators intervened and they requested the plaintiff and the defendant to live together considering the future of the child. Thus, they lived together from 8th January, 1968 and two children were born to them.

(2.) PLAINTIFF further submits that there was no customary marriage conducted, but a registered document was executed on 8. 1. 1968. Though the plaintiff and the defendant lived together, the relationship was not having the legal status of a husband and wife. There was no valid marriage. PLAINTIFF does not want to live with the defendant and continued the unlawful relationship. According to the plaintiff, he wants to live away from the defendant and the defendant cannot thereafter claim any legal right against him. Hence, the suit was filed for a declaration that no marriage relationship subsists between the plaintiff and the defendant and the defendant does not have the status of the wife of the plaintiff.

(3.) PLAINTIFF had been demanding that the house and the property in which they were living should be assigned in his name. Defendant did not agree for the same, since the character and conduct of the plaintiff were unpredictable. Suit was filed because of the fact that the defendant did not agree for assigning the property.