SATNAM SINGH Vs. HJRJINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Satnam Singh son of Karam Singh husband- appellant has filed the present appeal and it has been directed against the judgement and decree dated 15.9.1998 passed by the Court of Additional District Judge, Nawanshahr, who dismissed the petition under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act of the husband leaving the parties to bear their own costs.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the appellant filed a petition under Section 13 of the Act against his wife Harjinder Kaur, seeking dissolution of the marriage on the ground of desertion and the case set up by the appellant before the Trial Court was that the marriage of the parties took place on 20.10.1985 at village Kushalpur. Thereafter, the parties lived together as husband and wife at Banga. The marriage was consummated. The parties cohabited with each other as husband and wife and Harjinder Kaur, respondent gave birth to a female child on 25.8.1986 in her parental home at Hoshiarpur. On return to the matrimonial home, the appellant noticed a change in the attitude of the respondent as she started pressing upon him to have a separate residence from his mother to which he did not agree. Respondent treated the appellant with cruelty and refused to cook meals and perform other household and marital obligations and even refused to render conjugal company. Apart from this, the respondent was in the habit of insulting and abusing the appellant and his mother in the presence of others on lame excuse and without any provocation from the side of the appellant. The matter was brought to the notice of the parents of the respondent who sided with the respondent. Thereafter, the respondent started giving threats to the appellant that she would commit suicide in order to send the appellant to jail. Respondent has taken all her dowry articles to the house of her parents. When the respondent was living in the company of the appellant, the respondent used to pick up quarrel with the appellant and his mother without any rhyme and reason. Finally, in the month of December, 1989, the parents and brother of the respondent came to the house of the appellant and gave merciless beatings to the appellant. On the next day, in the absence of the appellant, the respondent left the matrimonial house by leaving behind the daughter in the house of the appellant. Since December, 1989, the respondent has left the society of the appellant without any reasonable cause. Now, the relations between the parties have deteriorated to such an extent that it is difficult for them to live together. Thus, the main allegation of the appellant is that the respondent has withdrawn from the society of the appellant without any sufficient cause for a continuous period of two years immediately preceding to the filing of the petition.

(3.) Notice of the petition was given to the respondent who took an objection that there is unnecessary and improper delay in filing the petition. The petition has been filed as a counter-blast to the petition under Section 13 of the Act, which was filed by the respondent at Hoshiarpur. Thus, the present petition is barred under Section 10 of the C.P.C.