MANGAT RAI Vs. SHANTI DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mangat Rai appellant, husband of Smt. Shanti Devi respondent, succeeded in securing an ex parte decree under section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) from the matrimonial Court. Respondent-wife moved the said Court to set aside the ex parte decree inter alia on the grounds that the service had not been effected upon her. The matrimonial Court dismissed that application holding on the strength of the report of the postman that she had refused to accept service and that she had been duly served by substituted service as a result of publication of the notice of the date of hearing in Hindi, Samachar, a daily newspaper published from Jullundur in Urdu language.

(2.) Respondent-wife's appeal found favour with the learned single Judge who was of the opinion that at times a party can persuade a postman to make a false report and that insertion of the notice of the date of hearing of the case in a newspaper published in Urdu language could he of no avail having regard to the fact that young Hindu ladies these days do not know that language.

(3.) The learned single Judge without laying down as a rigid proposition of law also felt inclined to hold that in a case of this nature unless the respondent was deliberately trying to harass the petitioner by not accepting the notice, the Courts should readily set aside the ex parte decree in order to make an effort for reconciliation between the parties which the statute enjoins upon the matrimonial Court as a statutory duty.