MONISHA SHARMA Vs. ASHIS SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has filed the present MATA with a prayer to set aside the judgment and order dated 6.7.2015 passed by the learned Judge, Family Court, Cuttack in C.P. No.171 of 2014 by which the learned Judge, Family Court decreed the above Civil Proceeding on contest against the appellant (present respondent) and declared that the marriage solemnized between the appellant and respondent on 10.12.2013 stood dissolved by decree of divorce. Learned Judge, Family Court further directed the respondent to pay permanent alimony of Rs.3,00,000/- to the appellant within a period of one month.

(2.) The short facts of this case are that the marriage between the appellant and respondent was solemnized at Cuttack on 10.12.2013 as per Hindu rites and customs whereafter both of them lived together in the house of the respondent. According to the respondent, who moved the learned Judge, Family Court, Cuttack in C.P. No.171 of 2014 against the appellant for dissolution of their marriage by a decree of divorce took the stand that from the very beginning of their marital life, the appellant told before the respondent that she had been forced by her parents to marry respondent against her will and consent as she was having intimacy with another person and they had already decided to marry. Accordingly, the appellant distanced herself from the respondent and did not allow him to have cohabitation with the respondent. This greatly shocked the respondent. It is the case of the respondent that the appellant continued to be in touch with the other person through her mobile phone and when the respondent protested, she became furious and started scolding him in filthy language. She also behaved with the respondent in an arrogant and abnormal manner. All these things were brought to the notice of the parents of the appellant. Thereafter, on being advised by them, the respondent took the appellant to Puri on a pleasure trip on the eve of New Year s Day and stayed there in a hotel on 31.12.2013 and on 1.1.2014. During their stay, they attended the New Year s party held in that hotel and to his utter surprise, the respondent found the appellant smoking cigarettes and taking wine while compelling the respondent to join her. On refusal, the appellant misbehaved with him before others. Being unable to tolerate the same, the respondent took the appellant inside the room where the appellant slept separately and refused to have physical relationship with the respondent. Subsequently, on 10.2.2014 the appellant went to her parental house with her brother. During her stay there on 12.2.2014 at about 8.30 P.M., the respondent was informed by his father-in-law that the appellant had been to parlour along with her cousin sister but fled away therefrom. So, her father lodged a missing report at Lalbag Police Station on 13.2.2014. On 14.2.2014, the appellant returned back to her father s house. From the police enquiry, it revealed that the appellant with the assistance of one Utkal Tiwari had been to Kolkata with an intention to proceed therefrom to Delhi to join with the other person with whom she had intimacy. But when the plan of the appellant could not fructify, she returned back. All these acts and conduct of the appellant caused much mental agony to the respondent. However, to resolve the dispute, family members of both parties held a Panch meeting in the house of the mediator - Brij Kishore Sharma on 19.2.2014. In the said meeting, it was decided that to keep the prestige and dignity of both the families both parties should go for divorce on mutual consent. But thereafter, the appellant and her parents did not come forward for divorce on mutual consent. However, being physically and mentally tortured by the appellant in the aforesaid manner and on account of non-consummation of their marriage and being unable to live with the appellant under one roof any further, the respondent filed C.P. No.171 of 2014 before the learned Judge, Family Court, Cuttack.

(3.) The appellant filed written statement challenging the maintainability of the divorce petition while denying the allegations of the respondent. Before the learned Judge, Family Court, Cuttack, the appellant took the plea that from the beginning that the respondent not only misbehaved with her but also tortured the appellant physically and mentally for no fault of her while casting doubt on her character without any basis. The appellant was confined in a room by the respondent and his parents and was not allowed to take food nor to talk with her family members over mobile phone. Further, the appellant took the stand that with the apprehension that she might take any legal action against the respondent and his parents, the respondent filed divorce petition making all sorts of false allegations against her.