RAJINDER KUMAR Vs. SUSHILA DEVI ALIAS SUSHMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE husband aggrieved against the order of the Matrimonial Court dismissing his petition for dissolving his marriage with his wife by a decree of divorce has come up in appeal under Section 28 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

(2.) THE facts unfolded in the petition briefly are : The marriage of the parties was solemnised on November 23, 1983; that out of the wed-lock a daughter namely, Renu was born on December 8, 1985; (hat the wife grumbled over the low standard of living of the husband's family; that the wife's behaviour towards the petitioner and his family members was insultive and abusive and she used to insult the husband in the presence of his friends whenever she was asked to prepare tea for them; that she always used to threaten to commit suicide in order to give mental torture to the husband; that the wife would leave the house of the husband 3-4 times in a month without his or his family members' permission; that on December 18, 1986, when the husband had gone to the parental house of the wife to bring her back, he was abused, insulted and man-handled by her brother in the presence of Master Lachhman Singh, who had gone with him to persuade her to return to the matrimonial home; that the wife consumed acid in the month of January, 1987 in order to give mental torture to the husband and she was taken to hospital for treatment and she remained under treatment for 4-5 months and was operated upon twice and she caused mental cruelty to the husband; that the parties came to Rohtak in July, 1988; the wife under the pretext that she wanted to see her ailing mother took all her jewellery and went to her mother's house and on request by the husband, she refused to return to the matrimonial home; that the wife threw away the daughter, the husband brought her back to her parents' house;. that the conduct of the wife caused mental cruelty to the husband and she had deserted her husband since July, 1988 and that she also filed an application under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

(3.) THE wife denied the allegations made in the petition. She admitted that she was suffering from minor ailment in January, 1987 and she was treated for that and that she had been consuming medicines brought by her husband; that she was treated in the hospital of the husband's choice for a few weeks. She denied that she had taken the valuables from the husband's house and to the contrary, pleaded that all the ornaments, istri-dhan and other valuables belonging to her were in the custody of the husband; (hat the husband was employed as Assistant Station Master in the Indian Railways and the wife was a daughter of a widow with very limited resources and her mother could not give valuable gifts to the husband as per their standard and he was annoyed on that account.