SUKHMANDER SINGH Vs. BALWINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the husband against the judgment of the learned Additional District Judge, Faridkot, dated April 17, 1980, dismissing his petition for restitution of conjugal rights or in the alternative for dissolution of marriage.

(2.) The parties were married in April, 1973. Out of their wedlock one daughter Vir Pal Kaur born in the year 1976 is alive. The case pleaded by the husband was that the respondent had deserted him for a.continuous period of more than two years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition without his consent and against his wishes. He previously filed a petition for restitution of conjugal rights under section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter called the Act) but the same was dismissed in default as he had fallen ill and could not attend the Court. In the present case, he, therefore, claimed restitution of conjugal rights and in the alternative a decree of dissolution of marriage on the ground of desertion.

(3.) The petition was contested by the respondent who denied the allegation of desertion and pleaded that she was turned out by the appellant as she failed to give birth to a male child and the articles given on the birth of the female child by her parents were not up to his pectations. Trial Court after recording evidence of the parties held that the wife was living separately from her husband because he had been maltreating her and, did not, in fact, want to keep her with him. Consequently, the plea of desertion was negatived and the petition dismissed.