SOU SUNANDA RAGHUNATH SADAVARTE Vs. RAGHUNATH KERU SADAVARTE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant-wife, feeling aggrieved by the judgment and decree of divorce passed by the learned Judge of Family Court, Pune, dated 19th November, 1990 dissolving her marriage with the respondent has preferred this appeal.

(2.) THE proceedings arose out of a petition filed by the respondent-husband seeking divorce on the ground of cruelty and desertion under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The parties were married according to Hindu religious rites at Pune on 6. 6. 1975. At the time of marriage the respondent was residing at village Chas near Khed in a Ram Mandir. After the marriage, the spouses started residing together at the said place. The respondent's parents were also residing with them. His father was about 85 years old and the mother was about 62 years old and was blind. She was also a patient of cancer. The case of the respondent was that their marriage was an arranged marriage. His father had retired and could not earn anything. He had to repay loan that was incurred by the father for the marriages of his sisters. His financial position therefore was not satisfactory. He had therefore to take up a job as a peon at the age of about 19 years. According to him, the appellant was given a complete idea about his financial position before the marriage and she had with full knowledge thereof consented to the marriage. The appellant's parents were from Pune. According to the respondent, eversince the time of marriage, the appellant-wife was not behaving normally as a newly wedded wife was expected to behave. She was quarrelsome. She neglected to look after the aged and ailing parents of the respondent. She did not attend to household work including cooking. She often went without informing him and behind his back to her parents at Pune and stayed there for days together without bothering for his aged parents and himself. In order to see that the appellant could be impressed to improve her ways and at her insistence to settle down at Pune, the respondent after the death of his father on 21st November, 1976 acquired premises at Karvenagar, Pune. He started living there alongwith the appellant and his mother. His widowed sister also lived with them. However, there was no improvement in the behaviour of the appellant-wife and she continued to be quarrelsome. She even assaulted his mother and sister. She then started demanding that they i. e. the respondent and she should establish a separate household. That however was not possible for him as he could not leave his aged, ailing and blind mother alone. Several efforts were made to impress upon the appellant to improve her ways but the attempts did not succeed. On the contrary, the appellant and her parents desired that he should stay at her parents' house as a ghar-Jawai. That however was not acceptable to him. In the circumstances, in the month of september 1977, the respondent went to reside with her parents never to return. Several attempts were made to bring her back but they failed. Since then the appellant did not show any interest to return to the matrimonial home, but instead on 14th January, 1980 she filed an application for maintenance in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate at Pune. She was awarded maintenance of rs. 250/- per month, but on revision the Sessions Court reduced the amount to Rs. 200/ -. In the year 1989, on an application made by the appellant-wife, the Family Court enhanced the amount of maintenance to Rs. 350/- per month. The respondent had been paying the amount as ordered. According to the respondent, the behaviour of the appellant had caused him considerable harassment and mental and physical cruelty. She had deserted him without any reasonable cause. He, therefore, sought divorce. The petition was filed on 20th August, 1989.

(3.) BY her written statement, the appellant denied the allegations made by the respondent in his petition. She alleged that the petition was not filed bona fide. She denied that the respondent was required to repay the loan allegedly taken for the marriages of his sisters so as to put him under financial strain. She denied the allegations of her being of quarrelsome nature and neglect of the parents of the respondent as were stated by the respondent in his petition. She also denied the allegation that in the month of September 1977, the respondent was suggested to go and stay with her parents as Ghar-Jawai or that she had abandoned the matrimonial home since then. She denied the right of the respondent to seek divorce by alleging that it was indeed the respondent who had ill-treated her and had to suffer the order for maintenance. She stated in the written statement that after the marriage when she went to stay with the respondent at Chas which was a village, she was harassed and abused on account of her not being accustomed to fetch water from the well and being a girl grown up in a city like Pune, she was not quite familiar with the household work in a village. Due to the constant abuses and harassment, it was he who has caused cruelty to the appellant and her parents. Her father and other persons tried to advice the respondent to behave properly and stop the harassment but that Was of no use. She alleged further that the respondent was addicated to liquor. He used to come home late at night under the influence of liquor and used to beat her. On one occasion due to such assault, she suffered a fracture to her writs. Not only that but once when she was going with the respondent in a bus, the respondent had tried to push her down the bus. This manner of behaviour of the respondent caused an apprehension to arise in her mind that it was not safe to continue to remain in the house of the respondent and, therefore, out of that apprehension she had gone to stay with her parents. She had not thus abandoned the company of the respondent nor had any intention to desert him. She further alleged that after she went to reside with her parents, the respondent made no enquiries about her well-being nor had bothered about her maintenance which had forced her to approach the Court for an order of maintenance. She further alleged that the respondent had performed a second marriage illegally and he was residing with the second wife at Pimpri. The appellant contended that neither she was guilty of causing and cruelty to the respondent nor desertion and since the respondent was trying to take advantage of his own werong, the petition was not maintainable and it deserves to be dismissed. She also claimed permanent alimony at the rate of Rs. 700/- per month and a sum of Rs. 500/- towards expenses. In that connection she alleged that the respondent was employed in the State Bank of India and was earning a salary of more than Rs. 2,200/- per month and there were no dependents on him.