AJMER SINGH Vs. RANJIT KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE marriage between the petitioner -appellant and respondent was solemnized on 25.10.1970 in accordance with and in pursuant to the Sikh Anand Karaj ceremony which was performed at village Gill Tehsil and District Ludhiana. Both of them lived together and cohabited. Resultantly, a son namely Satwin -derjit Singh was born out of this wedlock on April 14, 1972 at Kapoor Hospital, Ludhiana.

(2.) THE petitioner -appellant has pleaded that the respondent lived with him upto July 1971 and in that month she had left the matrimonial home of her own accord and, therefore, deserted him without any sufficient or reasonable cause. The petitioner -appellant joined regular service in Air Force and was in service at the time of marriage. The old parents of the petitioner -appellant had been residing with him, the younger brother Gurmukh Singh separated and is living separately since 1971 and is not on visiting terms with the rest of the family. The allegation is that the respondent refused to look after his parents and further refused to join his company. However, genuine and strenuous efforts were made to bring around reconciliation between the parties themselves and through the good offices of relatives and friends. However, nothing could be resolved and the respondent continued to live separately. During this period, the father of the appellant died and that the respondent did not turn up for joining the performance of last rites. Mother of the appellant is bed ridden with dislocated disc for the last four years. The appellant had got married and it was resolved that both of them would be able to look after the parents but the behaviour of the respondent remained very unsavoury which caused mental cruelty to him which was further added by the act of the respondent in leaving the matrimonial home without the knowledge of the appellant.

(3.) THE respondent contested the claim of the appellant and has emphatically denied the allegations contained therein. However, the fact of marriage and the birth of the child has been admitted. The allegation of desertion and cruelty have been emphatically denied and to the contrary she has stated that in fact she and her son had been thrown out by the petitioner from his house on May 12, 1972. She had made an effort to come back to the matrimonial home but she was again turned out on December 23, 1975 and that she had been given a beating on February 8, 1976. She again made an effort to come back to the matrimonial home in the year 1980 but just after four days, she was thrown out of the house and thereafter, she is living at the sufferance of her brother. She had in fact approached the Air Force authorities for giving maintenance allowance to her and her son out of the salary of the appellant. She had been advised that she should approach the Court, resultantly the application for maintenance had been filed before the appropriate Court and that she was awarded finally maintenance allowance at the rate of Rs. 300/ - per month by the appellate Court. She was not paid the maintenance but the same had to be demanded through the Court. She has stated that she had never ever deserted the appellant but he has in fact deserted them and he never even bothered to know the welfare of his son. She has never been taken to the place of posting of the appellant and that during her stay in the parental home of the appellant she had been maltreated by his parents and that all of them collectively turned her out of the house along with her son and on some occasion was given beating. It is further pleaded that the petition for divorce has been filed as a contrival to escape his liability to maintain her and the son.