P NANDHA KUMAR Vs. R AJANTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two Civil Miscellaneous Appeals have been filed by the husband against the common order, dated 13.10.2016 passed by the Family Court, Erode in H.M.O.P.No.103 of 2014 and H.M.O.P.No.649 of 2014 dismissing the divorce petition on the ground of cruelty and desertion filed by the husband and allowing the petition for restitution of conjugal rights filed by the wife.

(2.) The case of the appellant / husband is that the marriage between him and the respondent was solemnised on 08.09.2003 at Erode as per Hindu Rites and Customs and they were blessed with a female child on 07.12.2004. Ever since the date of marriage, the wife was not having cordial relationship with the husband as well as with his family members. In the first week of 2004, she left the marital home without informing the petitioner and his family members. The appellant / husband brought the respondent back from her parental home. Again in October 2004, she went to her parental home and refused to come back. The appellant was informed only when the wife was taken to the operation theater in the hospital. The appellant was not allowed to see the baby. Again in the first week of May 2006, the respondent quarreled with the husband and left the matrimonial home with her baby with a open declaration that she will never come back to her matrimonial home. The husband made a final attempt in the last week of May 2006 through mediators to bring back the wife and the child but in vain. Thus the wife caused untold mental agony apart from desertion.

(3.) The respondent / wife denied all the allegations of cruelty and desertion made by the husband in his petition. She averred in her counter that the husband was doing civil contract business in and around Kumbakonam and as such he had to stay away from the home and he used to visit her once in every two months. The mother-in-law and sister-in-law of the respondent caused mental cruelty to her. The birth of the child was immediately informed and neither the petitioner nor his mother visited the child. Only after a long persuasion and deliberation, the husband visited the child after three days. Thereafter they did not visit the child for about 5 months. The husband never showed any interest in the child. They never attended the needs of the wife and the child. On 07.07.2005, when they returned to Erode after attending a marriage at Kerala, the mother-in-law of the respondent picked up quarrel with the respondent and her parents and insulted them. On the next day, the respondent and the child were forcibly sent out of the matrimonial home by the mother-in-law and sister-in-law proclaiming that the respondent would soon get a divorce notice from her husband. When the petitioner was informed about the same, he also insisted the wife to leave the matrimonial home and stay with her parents till his return from the work.