NAGUESHCHANDRA SITARAM NAIK Vs. SMT. XACUNTALA MEENCAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an Appeal filed by the original plaintiff against the Judgment dated on 29th Jan., 1987, whereby the learned Civil Judge, Senior Devision, Panaji, dismissed the plaintiff's suit for annulment of his marriage with the respondent.

(2.) The grounds for filing the said suit were that the appellant got married to the respondent under the civil law on 13th Feb., 1980. This marriage was followed by a religious marriage on 4th May, 1980. The marriage was not a love marriage but one which was arranged on proposal. After the religious ceremony, according to the appellant, the respondent complained of headache and uneasiness, and therefore, took a Calmpose tablet and two other tablets. Then, on the night of the marriage, the behaviour of the respondent was quite abnormal and her conversation was incoherent. She was complaining of hearing strange voices, was crying and laughing, and finally, she started uttering insults. On account of this behaviour, the appellant got suspicious that the respondent might be suffering from a mental disease, , and therefore, he abstained from consummating the marriage. Her attitude continued in the following days, and therefore, the appellant ultimately took her for examination to the Medical College p Hospital where he found that the respondent was mental patient who had already received treatment for sometime in the said Hospital. She was suffering from schizophrenia and had he known about it, he would not have consented in marrying her.

(3.) The respondent resisted the suit, her case being that she was absolutely normal at the time of the marriage, although it was true that somewhere in the year 1974, she has been treated in the Medical College for a few months and cured. She denied any kind of misbehaviour, and on the contrary, charged the appellant and his family with i ill-treatment.