P RADHA KRISHAN MURTHY Vs. P VIJAYALAKSHMI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal in a matrimonial cause against an order of dismissal passed by the additional judge, city civil Court, Hyderabad dismissing OP No. 140/76 filed by the husband the husband sued his wife under sec. 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act for restitution of conjugal rights. He alleged that his wife had withdrawn from his society without any reasonable excuse.

(2.) The husband hailed from Hyderabad and the wife comes from Bombay. They were married at Hyderabad on 2/07/1975 After the marriage they lived for a short while together at Bombay in the house of the petitioners father-in-law Thereafter they came back to Hyderabad on 12/08/1975 where they stayed together in the husbands house. In that house the aged mother and the unmarried sister also resided contributing not a little to this matrimonial disharmony. On 28/09/1975 the wife went to Bombay and returned back to Hyderabad on 23-2-1976 where she stayed till 27-5-1976 Once again the wife left the husband and went back to Bombay this time never to return back on 28-5-76 she issued from Bombay a lawyers notice to the husband accusing him of cruelty. The wife charged the husband with physical acts and assault and mental torture. In the notice she alleged that the husband was acting without affection and even without human sympathy by denying her medical aid and even proper food. She further alleged in that letter that the husbands interest in that letter that the husbands interest to get money from her father was greater than his love for her. She charged the husband with placing ice slabs on her back and shoulders for about one hour tightly holding her hands was also said that her father when came from Bombay attempting to settle their quarrels was not even permitted to see his daughter. The letter ended with a demand for maintenance at the rate of Rs. 450.00 per month. To this letter, the petitioner-husband made a reply the substance of which is to blame the wife as not willing to stay with him except on his separation from his aged mother and the unmarried sister. He denied that he ever demanded any money from the wifes father but admitted the receipt of Rs. 5,000.00 by a demand draft which he admitted to have received towards monetary assistance to enable the couple to purchase household articles. He denied the wifes allegation that gold and other ornaments were retained with him. Strangely the charge of treating her cruelly and beating her physically was left undenied. Thereafter it appears that the wife filed a criminal Miscellaneous petition in Bombay and obtained an order for her maintenance under S. 125 Cr. C.P.C. the Bombay criminal Court awarded a maintenance at the rate of Rs. 350.00 per month which was reduced to Rs. 300.00 by the Bombay High Court .

(3.) It was in these circumstances the husband had filed the present application under sec. 9 of Hindu marriage Act, 1955 alleging that his wife has withdrawn herself without any reasonable excuse from his society and that therefore the Court may grant him a decree for restitution of conjugal rights. His case was mainly rested upon the fact that the wife has been living away from him and was living in Bombay. The wife had filed a counter admitting that she had been living away from the husband but justifying it on the ground that the husband was treating her cruelly and beating her with any respect due to a wife. In support of these rival contentions, the husband examined himself as P.W.1 and the wife examined herself as R. W. 1 and her father as R. W. 2 and a local gentleman as R. W. 3 the registered notices and letters that has passed between the petitioner and the father of the wife had been exhibited. The Additional Judge. City Court Hyderabad, on a consideration of these pieces of evidence held that the wife had a reasonable excuse to withdraw herself from the society of the husband it is against this order the present appeal had been filed.