SAROJNI MABEL PAUL Vs. EARNEST SATYA PAUL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under the Indian Divorce Act, 1869, for the confirmation of a decree granted by the learned District Judge, Chandigrah, declaring the marriage of the petitioner with the respondent as null and void.

(2.) Smt. Sarojni Mabel Paul had presented the petition under Ss. 18 and 19 of the Indian Divorce Act, 1869, for a decree of nullity of marriage. Therein it was averred that she was married to the respondent. Earnest Satya Paul on May 2, 1980 at Chandigarh according to Christian rites. This marriage is said to have been arranged by their parents in pursuance of an advertisement put out by the respondent in a newspaper. Both the respondent and his parents had assured the petitioner that his earlier marriage with one Mrs. Charity Harison had been dissolved.

(3.) After the marriage aforesaid, the parties first lived together at Dasuya and thereafter returned to Chandigrah where the petitioner was employed. The respondent is alleged to have suddenly left the matrimonial home without any information of his whereabouts. When the parents of the respondent were contacted, they gave no suitable reply. The petitioner became suspicious and enquiries revealed that the earlier marriage of the respondent with Mrs. Charity Harison had not at all been annulled. The petitioner averred that she waited for the return of the respondent and even made repeated enquiries from his parents, who, however, declined to disclose his whereabouts. The firm case set up was that the former wife of the respondent was alive and the marriage betwixt them had not been legally dissolved and she had been inveigled into marrying the respondent by fraud and suppression. Consequently she sought a decree of nullity against the respondent.