TARA SINGH Vs. JEONI KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against the judgment and decree passed on 2.5.2002 by the Additional District Judge, Mansa whereby a petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short "the Act") filed by the respondent-wife was accepted and marriage between the parties was dissolved by a decree of divorce.

(2.) The respondent was married to Bhag Singh about four decades back. Bhag Singh, however, died after about five years of the marriage. There was no issue from this wedlock. After the death of Bhag Singh, the parents of the respondent performed Chadar ceremony of the respondent with the present appellant-Tara Singh, the real brother of Bhag Singh. Ever since then, the respondent had been living with the appellant as his wife, but no issue was born from this wedlock as well. The parties adopted the niece of the respondent with their mutual consent.

(3.) The respondent-wife filed petition for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce on the grounds that the appellant-husband was in the habit of giving beating to her daily under the influence of liquor. Somewhere during the year 1998, the respondent-wife withdrew from the society of the appellant-husband as the latter had refused to support her. The respondent took Panchayat and other respectables to the appellant to persuade him to resume her society, but the appellant refused. On the basis of these instances, the respondent averred in her petition that the appellant had treated her with cruelty and deserted her without any reasonable cause as a result of which she had been writhing in mental agony as well as physical torture.