T RAJENDRAN Vs. SHYJA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mat.Appeal No.760/2008 has been filed by the defendant in OS No.129/2000 and Mat.Appeal No.103/2009 has been filed by the 1st respondent in OP(HMA) No.192/01. Cross objection No.7/2009 has been filed by the respondents in Mat.Appeal No.760/2008. As the appeals have been filed against a common judgment in both these cases, those are heard and decided together.

(2.) For convenience, the parties are described as shown in OP(HMA) No.192/2001 unless otherwise stated.

(3.) Petitioner married the first respondent on 5/11/1995. At the relevant time, petitioner was employed abroad. First respondent delivered three children and according to the petitioner, the second and third plaintiffs were not born to him as she was having illicit relationship with his brother. He alleged that the first respondent and his brother, the 2nd respondent, were in love, which was not known to him at the time of marriage. Even on the very first day of marriage, she did not share bed with him and she had later informed him that she cannot live with him as she was in love with the 2nd respondent. He further submitted that he went abroad on 28/1/1996 and he came back only on 12/3/1998. In the meantime, first respondent gave birth to a child on 20/8/1996 and in the birth certificate, father's name was shown as Jayaprakash. The third plaintiff was born on 15/2/1998. The petitioner did not come to India in between 28/1/1996 and 12/3/1998. According to him, there was no access or cohabitation with the first respondent from 28/1/1996 to 12/3/1998. In the birth certificate of the third plaintiff also, name of father is shown as Jayaprakash. He contended that the two children born to the first respondent are not his children and he therefore sought for dissolution of marriage on the ground of adultery, desertion and cruelty.