RAVISHANKER Vs. SHARDA VISHWAKARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is against the Judgment dated 5th July, 1977, passed by the fourth Additional District Judge, Jabalpur, in Civil Suit No. 82-A of 1976. By that Judgment, the trial Court dismissed a joint application made by a married couple for grant of a divorce by mutual consent under Section 13-B of the hindu Marriage Act which has been inserted by the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976 (No 68 of 1976 ). The trial Court has held that a divorce by mutual consent in accordance with the newly added Section 13-B alone cannot be granted and it is necessary to prove the existence also of some other ground to enable grant of divorce. This has led to the present appeal also filed jointly by the couple.

(2.) THERE is no controversy about the facts.

(3.) THE facts pleaded and also (adequately proved by evidence adduced in the trial Court are these: The parties were married at Jabalpur on 19th June, 1975. They lived together only for 22 days thereafter and have, since then, been unable to live together. The joint petition for divorce by mutual consent in accordance with the newly added Section 13-B was filed on 23-11-1976. It was alleged therein that the parties lived together for only 22 days after their marriage at Jabalpur on 19th June, 1975; that they had been living separately since then for a period of more than one year upto the date of petition, that there was no chance of their reconciliation and living together at any time in future and that they had mutually agreed that their marriage should be dissolved in the best interest of both the parties and their families. Thereafter, evidence, was recorded in the trial Court on 2-7-1977. The husband and the wife both examined themselves in the Court and proved these very facts reiterating their desire to obtain the divorce by mutual consent.