TUFAIL AHMAD Vs. JAMILA KHATUN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal has been referred to a Bench for decision by the Chief Justice as a learned single Judge asked for such a decision because of the importance of the question of law involved in the case.

(2.) Jamila Khatoon, the plaintiff, was married to Tufail Ahmed, the defendant, sometime in the year 1935. In 1947 it appears that matrimonial bickerings started between the husband and wife. In 1948 the plaintiff-wife left her husband and went to live with her brother. In November, 1948, there was a complaint under Section 498 of the Indian penal Code by the husband and in this complaint the husband apparently made an allegation of unchastity against the wife. Subsequent to the complaint mentioned above, which was dimissed, the husband filed a suit in 1948 for restitution of conjugal rights. In this suit the husband unequivocally retracted the allegation which he had, apparently stupidly, made against the wife in the 498, Indian Penal Code proceedings. The suit for restitution of conjugal rights was dismissed and we are really not concerned with the grounds on which that suit was dismissed, for we are concerned with something that followed subsequently.

(3.) On the 30th March, 1949, the wife filed the present suit out of which this appeal has arisen for the, dissolution of her marriage with the defendant. The suit was filed under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 (VIII of 1939). The ground on which dissolution was sought was the false imputation of unchastity by the husband to the wife. In his written statement the husband did not stand by the alleged imputation of unchastity. On the other hand, he relied on the reaction and claimed the benefit of that retraction to defeat the plaintiff's claim for divorce.