NARINDER KAUR Vs. VARJINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SMT . Narinder Kaur has filed the present appeal and it has been directed against the judgment and decree dated 5.4.1999 passed by the Additional District Judge, Fatehgarh Sahib, who allowed the petition of Varjinder Singh (now respondent) under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') and granted a decree of divorce on the ground of desertion.

(2.) THE brief facts of the case are that Varjinder Singh respondent filed a petition under Section 13 of the Act and it was inter alia pleaded by him that the marriage between the parties took place on 9.4.1989 by way of Anand Karaj ceremonies. The parties cohabited with each other but no child was born out of this wedlock. It was alleged by the husband that wife resided with him till December 1991 and in the said month her brother-in-law took her to her parental house and thereafter she did not turn up to join his company. In the month of June 1992, the petitioner along with his relatives and respectables approached the respondent-appellant and requested her to resume his company but to no effect. In the month of November 1993, Jaswant Singh, brother-in- law of respondent along with his brothers Kulwant Singh and Pritam Singh and other relatives namely, Thakur Singh, Kundan Singh and Shinder Singh, residents of village Jalmana, district Karnal came to village Pawala at the house of the petitioner and expressed the desire of the respondent not to live in the company of the petitioner and stated that he should get divorce by mutual consent. Jaswant Singh, brother-in-law (Jija) of the respondent had also been pressuring the petitioner and his family members to mutually divorce the respondent. In the month of January 1995, the petitioner and his relatives again convened panchayat and went to the house of the respondent- wife and persuaded her to resume the company of the petitioner, but she did not agree. It was further averred that the parents of the respondent-wife are not alive and Jaswant Singh, husband of the elder sister of the respondent, is residing at village Thaska Ali as Ghar Jawai. The property left by the father of the respondent has been inherited by the respondent and her sister in equal shares. Therefore, the respondent has become the owner of seven acres of land. The borther-in-law of the respondent does not want that the land should go in the hands of the petitioner. He had already sold some land in abadi of Village Thaska Ali belonging to the respondent. Since the respondent-wife has deserted the petitioner without any reasonable cause and excuse for more than four years and eleven months prior the filing of the petition, therefore, the husband has sought a decree of divorce.

(3.) THE petitioner-husband filed a re-joinder in which he denied the allegations of the written statement by reiterating that of the petition. It was further pleaded by the husband that brother-in-law of the respondent-wife wants to grab the land and other property which has been inherited by her, and, therefore, he does not want that the respondent should come and live in the company of the husband.