SUDESH Vs. MAHABIR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment and decree of the Additional District Judge, Rohtak, dated January 27, 1988, whereby the respondent-husband's petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, was allowed and marriage between the parties dissolved.

(2.) THE parties were married according to Hindu rites on April 29, 1979. They lived together till April 1981. No child was, however, born to the couple. The case of the petitioner is that the wife insisted that the husband should start living separately from his parents. The husband, however, did not do so as he had aged parents and his other brothers were already living separately for the last about five years. There was no one else to look after the parents. The wife went to her parent's house and when the husband went to fetch her, she refused to come. In the month of September 1984, the wife joined service as Arts and Craft Teacher in the office of the Block Development and Panchayat Office, Hisar, and was posted at the Sewing Centre at Village Gawar. The husband took a Panchayat comprising Suraj Bhan, Jai Singh PW-2, Mir Singh PW-3 and Man Singh to the parents' house of the wife, but she as well as her parents declined to come. Repeated efforts made by the husband proved in vain. Ultimately, left with no other choice, the husband instituted the present petition on January 12, 1987.

(3.) THE petition was contested by the wife. It was denied that she ever deserted the husband or ever insisted that he should live separately from his parents. She expressed her readiness and willingness to reside with the husband and perform all matrimonial obligations. She further alleged that the husband gave her beatings for not bringing sufficient dowry. Her husband and his parents had put a lock on all her ornaments, clothes and other dowry articles by putting them in a almirah. She further stated that she had joined service with the consent of the husband and that she was turned out of the house sometimes after Dewali 1984 and, in fact, it was the husband who had deserted her and not the other way round. It was further pleaded that her father had taken several Panchayats consisting of respectable persons from the village to the house of the husband in the year 1985 and again in 1986, but the petitioner and his parents refused to relent. The Trial Court framed the following issues :-