ANJU SAHA Vs. GOBINDA SAHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal, by the wife, is directed against the judgment and decree dated 24.05.2013, passed by the learned District Judge, Barpeta, in Divorce Title Suit No.13/2010, decreeing the suit of the respondent dissolving the marriage between the appellant and the respondent by a decree of divorce, on the ground that the marriage between the parties has irretrievably broken down.

(2.) An application under Section 13(1)(i) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (in short the 1955 Act), has been filed by the respondent herein praying for dissolution of the marriage with the appellant herein, contending inter alia that though the marriage between the parties was solemnized on 13.02.2004, out of which wedlock a boy was born, who was 5(five) years old, the appellant/wife has started treating the respondent/husband as well as his family members with cruelty by using harsh and filthy languages causing mental pain to them, who often went away to her parents' house with the minor child without the knowledge and consent of the husband, thereby causing inconvenience and hardship to him. The further pleaded case is that on 20.08.2006 the respondent has left husband along with their minor son and since then is living with her parents, without there being any justification for that and also refused to return to the matrimonial house and openly declared that she would never resume her conjugal life with the husband as he is poor and unable to provide the minimum comfort of life. A very serious allegation of living an adulterous life has also been leveled by the husband, in the said application seeking divorce, against the wife.

(3.) The appellant wife on receipt of the summons entered appearance and filed the written statement disputing the claim of the husband and contending inter alia that it was the husband who was demanding more dowry and when the family members of the wife refused to pay any further dowry, the husband assaulted her and even threatened her to kill. It has further been pleaded that she was in fact driven out of the matrimonial house along with the minor child, because of non-payment of the dowry, for which she has to institute a proceeding under Section 125 Cr.P.C., she having no independent source of income. The wife has also pleaded that despite her desire to stay with the husband, he has refused to keep the wife and the child and intended to marry another woman. It has also been pleaded that because of the demand for dowry, proceedings under Section 498A IPC was instituted by the wife, apart from institution of a suit seeking damage for the allegation of living an adulterous life.