MAGHAR SINGH Vs. BALBIR KAUR AND BALDEV SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed by Maghar Singh petitioner against the judgment and decree of the Additional District Judge, Faridkot dated 2nd January, 1980 dismissing his petition for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage, Act, 1955 (hereinafter called the Act).

(2.) Briefly, the case of the petitioner is that he was married to Shrimati Balbir Kaur Respondent No. 1 in 1955 at village Mari Mustifa. After the marriage two daughters - Surjit Kaur (aged 15-1/2 years) and Parkash Kaur aged 14-1/2 years) were born out of the wedlock. The petitioner was serving in the Indian Army and remained there upto 1968. In the summer of 1967 she in his absence left his house and took away all the household goods, furniture, clothes, utencils etc. to Mari Mustifa, her parents' village with the intention of deserting him for ever. On his return from service he tried to persuade her to resume cohabitation with him but without any success. She also developed intimacy with Baldev Singh Respondent No. 2 and has been living with him in his house at Kotkapura for the last 8/9 years. She, gave birth to a son named Malkiat Singh from his loins. He consequently filed an application for divorce on the ground of desertion and adultery.

(3.) The application was contested by both the respondents. Shrimati Balbir Kaur admitted her marriage with the petitioner and also the births of the daughters. She further admitted that Malkiat Singh was her son but pleaded that he was born out of the loins of the petitioner and not that of Respondent No. 2. According to her she was maltreated and turned by the petitioner after giving her a beating when she was pregnant. She denied that she was living in adultery with Respondent No. 2.