RAJALAKSHMI AMMAL Vs. W JAMBULINGA MUDALIAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the order and decree of the learned District Judge of Chingleput under S. 5(3) of Madras Act 6 of 1949 directing dissolution of the marriage between the appellant and her husband, the respondent in appeal. The ground on which the husband as petitioner sought and obtained the dissolution was that his wife had, "without just cause, deserted him for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition" within the meaning of S. 5(i)(c) of the Act.

(2.) It was common ground that the appellant and the respondent were married on 26-6-1942. It was only on 5-6-1947, five years after the marriage, that the marriage was consummated. The appellant and the respondent lived together for about a year, but their married life was not happy.

(3.) Though it may not be very material in deciding the main question at issue, whether the appellant deserted her husband without just cause, the contention of the appellant, that the consummation of the marriage was delayed by about five years because her parents could not and so did not comply with the demands of P.W. 2, the mother of the respondent, for the present she desired to be made to her son, appears to be true even from the evidence of P.W. 2 herself.