PURABI BANERJEE Vs. BASUDEB MUKHERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the wife Sm. Purabi Banerjee whose petition dated August 14, 1963, for annulling, by a decree of nullity, her marriage on April 26, 1963, with the respondent Basudeb Mukherjee, on the ground that her consent to the marriage was obtained by coercion and fraud, just the ground under Section 25, Clause (iii), of the Special Marriage Act, 43 of 1954, fails before the learned Chief Judge, City Civil Court, Calcutta.

(2.) On April 26, 1963, when Purabi and Basudeb were married, Purabi was 23 or thereabouts and Basudeb 28 or thereabouts.

(3.) On August 1, 1962, Basudeb started coaching Purabi -- then a B. A. student of Scottish Church College, Calcutta, and residing under the care of her uncles and aunts in their joint family residence at 235, Barrackpore Trunk Road, Calcutta 36. Basudeb was engaged so, on the recommendation of Purabi's cousin -- one Asim Ganguli alias Nantu whose colleague in office Basudeb was, Basudeb's remuneration was no more than Rs. 36 a month for lessons of 2 hours a day but for 3 days a week, as the averment in the third paragraph of Purabi's petition is, or Rs. 35 a month for lessons of one hour a day for 3 days in a week, as is Basudeb's evidence. It does not matter which. What matters is that the parties -- Basudeb and Purabi -- got to know one another so, and that too as the teacher and the taught.