MUKHTIAR KAUR Vs. MAGHAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Maghar Singh respondent filed a petition under section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter called the Act) for the restitution of conjugal rights. It was allowed by the trial Court vide judgment dated May 9, 1979. Aggrieved there by the wife has come up in this appeal.

(2.) On the last date a prayer was made by the learned counsel for the respondent that he may be allowed to amend the relief clause so as to claim a decree of divorce in view of the amended provisions of the Act. However today be expressed his inability to claim that relief as according to him a petition under section 9 of the Act cannot be converted into one for & decree of divorce. Be that as it may, as the respondent did not amend the petition the case was heard on the pleadings already existing.

(3.) According to the averments made in the petition, the parties were married in the year 1964 and they lived together as husband and wife for ten years, during which period four children were born out of whom three a are surviving. Thereafter in the year 1974, the wife left the matrimonial home and is keeping away without any cause. The wife contested the petition. The defence set up by her was that she never left the matrimonial home of her own accord and instead was turned out by the husband after giving a severe beating. As it was admitted that the wife was living in the house of her father for the last three years, the trial Court correctly observed that it was for her to show sufficient cause for withdrawing from the society of the husband.