POOJA Vs. VIJAY KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal has been directed against the judgment and order dated 15.2.2016 passed by the learned District Judge, Almora in Civil Appeal No. 39/2015. A matrimonial divorce petition no. 30/2014 was instituted on 2.4.2014 by husband Vijay Kumar against his wife Smt. Pooja Arya seeking dissolution of the marriage under Section 13(1)(i-a)(i-b) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

(2.) It is pertinent to mention that both the spouses are the residents of the same place Indira Basti, Ranikhet, District Almora. They tied their nuptial knot on 14.7.2009. So, it can be inferred that wife could have arrived to her matrimonial home not earlier than the morning of 15.7.2009. When in the coming night, the husband attempted to consummate the marriage, she denied on the ground of undergoing the menstrual cycle and this denial went on as such up to the night of 18.7.2009. On 19.7.2009, Smt. Pooja came to her parents' house for some worship and lived their up to 23.7.2009. Nothing has been indicated in the averments of the husband that he further tried for cohabitation in the intervening night of 23/24.7.2009. So, that night also could not be of any avail for marriage consummation. On 24.7.2009, both spouses came to Nainital for the purpose of honeymoon and stayed in a local city hotel, but nothing has been explicitly explained regarding the establishment of spousal relations in the intervening night of 24/25.7.2009.

(3.) It was pleaded by the husband that in the evening of 25th July 2009, he found that Smt. Pooja eloped suddenly. He inquired from some local persons at Tallital, where he gathered the information that Smt. Pooja left with some young man for Haldwani. So, apprehending some foul play on the part of Smt. Pooja, he also followed her to Haldwani, where at bus stand he found her sitting alone in a bus. By that time, it was late evening, but somehow they both returned to Nainital. Parents of both were informed, who also arrived in the intervening night of 25/26.7.2009. So, mutual settlement or the talks to mitigate the bitterness inter se continued for the whole night, but in this way the marriage could not be consummated in that night too. They checked out the hotel in the morning of 26th July 2009, and it appears that then Smt. Pooja left along with her own family and did not live in the house of her husband in the intervening night of 26/27.7.2009.