S. PRADEEPKUMAR Vs. S. SATHIYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The civil miscellaneous appeal on hand is filed challenging the fair and decreetal order dated 22.07.2006 passed in I.D.O.P.No. 13 of 2015.

(2.) The appellant/husband filed a petition for dissolution of marriage under Sections 18 and 19 (2) of the Indian Divorce Act, 1869. The parties to the lis on hand admitted the fact that they contracted the marriage and the marriage was solemnized and thereafter lived together as husband and wife. When both the husband and wife admitted that they lived together happily for about five to six months, thereafter difference of opinion arose and she left the matrimonial home. Under those circumstances, the petition is filed under Sections 18 and 19(2) of the Indian Divorce Act, 1869. Keeping in mind the admitted facts that the marriage was solemnized between the appellant and the respondent as well as the spouses lived together in a matrimonial home for about five to six months, the grounds available for dissolution of marriage under Sections 18 and 19 of the Indian Divorce Act are to be considered.

(3.) Section 18 of the Indian Divorce Act stipulates a petition for decree of nullity. Thus, any husband or wife may present a petition to the District Court, praying that his/her marriage may be declared as null and void. The grounds for passing such a decree was enumerated in Section 19 of the Act and, accordingly, the decree may be made on the following grounds: (1) that the respondent was impotent at the time of the marriage and at the time of the institution of the suit; (2) that the parties are within the prohibited degree of consanguinity (whether natural or legal) or affinity; (3) that either party was a lunatic or idiot at the time of the marriage; and (4) that the former husband or wife of either party was living at the time of the marriage, and the marriage with such former husband or wife was then in force.