VINOD KUMAR Vs. ASHA BAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the husband's appeal against the trial Court's judgment and decree whereby his claim for divorce under Sec. 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, on the grounds of cruelty and desertion by the wife, was dismissed.

(2.) The material facts which are not in dispute are that parties were lawfully married according to Hindu rites and customs in 1977. Respondent- wife Ashabai, for the present, is living in her parental home at her brother's place. Appellant-husband, on the report lodged with the police by the respondent-wife, was prosecuted in the criminal court under Sec. 325 Indian Penal Code for causing grievous hurt to his wife. Vide the Criminal Court's Judgment dated 9-6-1981, the appellant was convicted only of the offence under Sec. 323 of the Penal Code and was released on probation of good conduct under Sec. 3 of the Probation of Offenders Act. The wife, sometime before the conviction of her husband in the criminal case, had equally filed an application under Sec. 125 Criminal Procedure Code, claiming maintenance against her husband and it was after this application and the Criminal Court's Judgment that the appellant-husband had filed the claim for divorce under Sec. 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

(3.) Appellant-husband's claim for divorce was firstly based on the premise that his wife was guilty of cruelty towards him and his parents inasmuch as, she used to quarrel and misbehave with them and was in the habit of going away to her parental home of her own accord, without the permission of the husband and in laws. Apart from the ground of cruelty, divorce was also sought on the ground that she, of her own accord, had deserted the husband and had gone away to her parental home.