ROYCE Vs. JIJI C JOHNSON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Invoking the supervisory jurisdiction vested on this court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner is challenging Ext.P5, P6 & P7 orders passed by the Family Court, Thrissur on 10-11-2017 in I.A. Nos.5352/2017, 5881/2017 and 5882/2017 in O.P. No.969/2017.

(2.) The petitioner is the husband and the respondent is the wife. Their marriage was solemnized on 16-04-2014. Due to the estrangement in their marital relationship, the petitioner instituted O.P. No.764/2015 before the Family Court, Irinjalakuda seeking dissolution of the marriage on the ground of alleged desertion by the wife, under Section 13 (1) of the Hindu Marriage Act . The said original petition was subsequently transferred to Family Court, Thrissur and re-numbered as O.P. No.969/2017. The three interim applications mentioned above were filed by the petitioner in the said case. In one among the applications, the petitioner sought for an amendment of the original petition in order to incorporate an additional ground and relief, based on an allegation that the respondent is leading an adulterous life with her own brother. It is stated that, the petitioner had some suspicions about such a relationship even earlier. But he had not pleaded the same since he was not sure about it. Now the said fact became more clear and evident when the wife of the respondent's brother had filed a case before the Family Court, Thrissur as O.P No.1494/2014 seeking dissolution of their marriage by impleading the respondent herein as alleged adulterer. Further it is mentioned that, the sister-in-law of the respondent had also filed a private complaint before the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Thrissur alleging offence punishable under Section 498 A IPC, in which the respondent herein is also implicated as an accused. Under such circumstances, through the amendment, the petitioner seeks to incorporate an additional ground of adultery for dissolution of the marriage.

(3.) The second among the interim applications was filed to implead the brother of the respondent as additional respondent (co-respondent/adulterer). The third interim application is to amend the 'cause title' of the original petition to include the name of the alleged adulterer.