MANJULABAI Vs. RAMCHANDRA AWASTHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal filed by the wife, and is directed against the judgment and decree dated 13th March 1972 passed by the District Judge, Ratlam, in C. S. No. 11-A of 1968, granting judicial separation on the ground of cruelty under section 10 (1) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, (hereinafter called the Act)

(2.) THE petitioner husband filed an application before the District Judge, ratlam, under section 10 (1) of the Act, for a decree for judicial separation on the ground that his wife, the appellant, had treated the petitioner with such cruelty as to cause a reasonable apprehension in his mind that it would be harmful or injurious for him to live with her. The petitioner averred that his marriage with the appellant was solemnized on 15th June 1963, that soon after the marriage the appellant, neglecting her domestic duties, even failed to cook food for him whereby he had to go without food for attending his office; that the appellant had a very irritable temper and a foul tongue and used to break her bangles; that all that behaviour caused great mental agony to the petitioner, but he preferred to suffer the same with a view not to break up the matrimonial home. The petitioner further alleged that in January 1964, when his mother was seriously ill due to burns, the appellant behaved in a revolting manner, not only during the illness of the petitioner's mother but even after her death, thus subjecting him to humiliation and shame in the eyes of the society. The petitioner also alleged that the appellant's obstinacy in leaving for parental home for delivery, without undergoing necessary religious ceremonies, was the cause, according to the petitioner, of the death of his infant son within ten days of his birth, and that this fact caused severe anguish to the petitioner; that he had, therefore, refused to receive her back in the matrimonial home, but as a result of an undertaking given by her in an agreement dated 4th December 1956 executed by her, and as a result of persuasion by elders, he made another attempt of set up the matrimonial home, but it was of no avail as the appellant did not mend her ways and even attempted to set fire to her clothes to alaram the petitioner. The petitioner, therefore, prayed for grant of a decree for judicial separation on the ground that the appellant by all her aforesaid acts of cruelty, caused a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the petitioner that it would be harmful and injurious for him to live with the appellant.

(3.) THE appellant, in her reply, denied all the allegations made against her. She stated that the petitioner was infatuated by some other woman and hence he was disliking her. She admitted execution of the undertaking, but urged that it was really meant to satisfy the vagaries of the petitioner. She alleged that it was the petitioner who was behaving in an inhuman manner towards her. She further contended that there were absolutely no grounds for granting a decree for judicial separation, and that the application filed by the petitioner in that behalf be rejected with costs.