SUKHWINDER KAUR Vs. HARBANS KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision is against the order of the matrimonial court setting aside the ex parte decree passed on 10.10.1990. The wife filed the petition 8 years later on 24.08.1998 contending that she had been living away in U.K. and her husband knew about the same even in the petition filed before the Court, her address was shown as being a resident of U.K., but when the notice was not served, substituted service was taken through publication in Punjab Kesari. The petitioner could not have taken a publication in a newspaper circulated only in a State in India when he knew that the wife was living in a foreign country. The Court allowed this application on appraisal of her contention that she had moved an application for setting aside the ex parte decree as soon as she came to know about the same and there was a justification for not filing the petition within 30 days. The revision petition has been tiled through a person who claimed to be his second wife after the divorce was granted. She would prosecute the case to legitimize her own matrimonial status as a lawfully wedded wife and that when she had contracted to the marriage, there was no subsisting relationship of the man with the first wife, the marriage having been dissolved by a decree of divorce. There is no representation for the petitioner and as genuine as her grievance could be, it cannot take away the one most fundamental issue that the decree has been granted without effecting service of notice and the substituted service ordered could not mean sufficient service in this particular case, having particular regard to the fact that she was living away in foreign country and the publication had been effected in a State run daily. There was substantial justification for setting aside the decree and the Court below was justified in allowing the application setting aside the decree. Beyond affirming the order, the case cannot proceed any further. The petition for divorce which was granted and which is set aside must ultimately result in dismissal as having abated in view of the death of the husband. As of now, the consequences will be that the respondent shall be taken as still the legally wedded wife whose marriage was not dissolved by any decree till the death of her husband. The civil revision is dismissed with the above legal clarifications. The matrimonial proceedings as stated abated by the death of the petitioner. The file be consigned to the records with the observations made.