RITA DAS BISWAS Vs. TRILOKESH DAS BISWAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The judgment dated 27-7-1998 passed by learned Additional District Judge, West Tripura, Agartala in T. S. (Divorce) 32 of 1990 dissolving the marriage between the appellant wife and the respondent husband herein has been called in question in the present appeal.

(2.) We have heard Mr. S. Deb, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. R. Dasgupta, learned counsel for the appellant wife and Mr. A. K. Bhowmik, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. P. Deb Roy as well as Mrs. K. Deb, learned counsels for the respondent husband.

(3.) The background fact of the failed marriage may be briefly noticed thus : The marriage between the parties had taken place on 26-1-1989 at Agartala, the capital of the State, in the house of the parents of the appellant wife performing the rituals of Hindu Marriage. The respondent husband comes from a rural area known as Khowai and he is a teacher by profession. It is the allegation of the husband that from the very first night of the marriage the conjugal relation suffered jolts when to his dismay he discovered the bride behaving abnormally and not responding favourably to his sexual approaches. With the passage of time, his relation stumbled again and again when she persistently showed her reluctance to cohabitation and expressed her physical incompetence. She refused to sleep with him and expressed her strong objection to use by him any articles given by her parents as " gift. She began to misbehave with him, his parents and other in-laws developing thus a sad and unhappy situation in the family. She declared openly that her marriage with a teacher made her unhappy and she was not ready to stay in the mafassil home of her husband. She was in the habit of visiting the neighbours without any permission from the elders and maligning the in -laws with false and cooked up stories, which amounted to defaming the family. She started frequently leaving the marital home for her parents at Agartala defying her husband and the parents-in-law, which only widened the gap between the spouses. Because of her abnormality and physical incompetence, the respondent husband made several attempts for her treatment, which she stubbornly resisted. Finally, she left the marital home on 31-12-1989 for her parent's house at Agartala writing a note that she was leaving on her own. The said note has been marked as Exbt. 10. Thus, mental illness, physical incompetence and desertion amounting to cruelty formed the basis for making a prayer for dissolution of the marriage. It may be noted that during last 16 years, after her final departure on 31-12-1989, there was no occasion for her to return to the marital tie.