ANGREZ KAUR Vs. BALDEV SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The true scope and ambit of the discretion vested in the Matrimonial Court by the recently inserted S. 13-A of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 is the primary question which has come to the fore in this appeal under Clause X of the Letters Patent.

(2.) For the determination of the aforesaid legal issue (upon which alone, the fate of the appeal would turn), it seems unnecessary to delve deeply into the long drawn out conjugal bitterness between the spouses, which stands fully recapitulated in the judgment under appeal. It suffices to mention that the marriage took place way back on Feb. 16, 1948 and two daughters were born out of the wedlock of whom the elder survived. It would appear that the marriage virtually broke up after four years and a separation between the two spouses was brought about. On Jan. 15, 1962, the respondent-husband, filed a petition for the restitution of conjugal rights under S. 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act., 1955 (hereinafter called 'the Act'), which was dismissed with the findings that in fact he had maltreated his wife and turned her out of the house. No appeal was filed against the said judgment and these findings achieved finality. The appellant-wife on Feb. 8, 1962 had preferred a petition under S. 488, Criminal P. C. 1898, for maintenance which was allowed by the Magistrate by granting Rs.30/- per mensem for the appellant and Rs.20/- per mensem for her daughter from the date of her application. In the revisional proceedings, before the District Judge and later in the High Court, the said judgment was maintained on March 6, 1967. The High Court further took the view that the alleged offer made by the respondent-husband before it to take the appellant- wife back to resume matrimonial ties, was not bona fide.

(3.) Nearly 29 years after the solemnisation of the marriage and decades after the separation of the parties, the respondent-husband on Oct. 25, 1977 preferred a petition for divorce under S. 13 of the Act. The learned Additional District Judge, Sangrur, allowed the same and granted a decree for dissolution of marriage by divorce between the parties on Sept. 21, 1978.