DEEPO WIFE OF KEHAR SINGH Vs. KEHAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is directed against the order of the Subordinate Judge, First Class, bhatinda, granting Kehra Singh petitioner a decree for restitution of conjugal rights against his wife Mst. Deepo.

(2.) THE allegations of Kehar Singh in his petitioner under section 9 of the Hindu marriage Act, No. 25 of 1955, were that the parties were married in December, 1942, and had lived as husband and wife but no child was born to them, that Mst. Deepo left his house without reasonable excuse in August 1956, and went to her parents and resided with them, that he had gone to bring her back but at first she made excuses and later on refused to return. It was also stated in the petition that the Court in which the application was filed had jurisdiction to try the suit, because the parties had lived together in village Behman-Jassa-Singh which was within the jurisdiction of that Court.

(3.) THIS petition was contested by Mst. Deepo, who pleaded that the Court had no jurisdiction to try the petition as she had never lived with the petitioner in village behman-Jassa-Singh, that she had been turned out by Kehar Singh from his house after she had been given a beating, that they had been living in Mari Mustfa where they had settled after the function at Pakistan, that she had filed an application for maintenance under section 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure because the had been neglected by her husband, and that the application under section 9 of the hindu Marriage Act, 1955, hereinafter called the Act, had been filed mala fide in order to escape the liability of paying maintenance to her. It was also stated by her that the petitioner was living with his first wife Mst. Mukhtiar Kaur in village behman-Jassa-Singh and under the circumstances she was unable to perform the duties of a wife.