K. LAKSHMI Vs. K. SEETHAPATHY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondent husband filed O.P.No. 48 of 1982 on the file of the learned VI Assistant Judge, City Civil Court, Madras, seeking a decree for divorce under Ss. 13(1)(i -a) and 13(1)(i -b) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 as amended by Act 68 of 1976. According to the respondent, as stated in the petition, the marriage between the -petitioner and the respondent took place on 11.2.1976 at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and they had been living together as husband and wife at No. 99 Thyappa Mudali Street, G.T., Madras -1 till 20.3.1978, on which date the wife left the matrimonial home with the intention to desert the husband. A female child was born to the appellant through the respondent on 15.8.1977. Ever since the date of marriage the wife did not want to live with the husband and she frequently went away to her parents' house during the period of her living with him and she treated the husband with contempt and developed a dislike and aversion towards him. The petitioner further stated in the petition, with respect to cruelty, that the respondent practised mental cruelty on him on several occasions in 1977 and 1978 till 20.3.1978. During her stay with him, by systematically imputing adulterous and immoral conduct on the part of the petitioner. His further case was that the wife refused to have any sexual intercourse with the petitioner upto the date of desertion. As a result of such refusal to cohabit with the petitioner he had become a physical and nervous wreck and has also become unable to concentrate on his official work. On these basis, the respondent herein filed the petition for divorce.

(2.) The wife/appellant contested the petition by filing a counter stating that she had not deserted her husband as alleged by him on any day much less on 20.3.1978. According to her, she was driven out by the husband on 20.3.1978. She had no intention to desert her husband. According to the wife, she never treated her husband with contempt and developed a dislike or aversion towards him as alleged.

(3.) With respect to the ground of cruelty, it is the case of the wife that she has not been falsely accusing the husband, It is her further case that even though her husband had developed illicit intimacy with other women and was indulging in adulterous activities, she was keeping quiet and she never objected to his ways of living. She has also denied the averments regarding cruelty alleged by the husband.