ANIL KUMAR SHARMA Vs. ASHA SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MARRIAGE between the parties was solemnised on 16.11.1993, according to Hindu Religious Rites, at Amritsar. It was a simple marriage and no articles of dowry were given to the appellant or his family members. After the marriage, parties cohabited together at Kapurthala, where the appellant has been serving in Rail Coach Factory. After his appointment in Rail Coach Factory in 1987, the appellant was allotted a railway quarter in Rail Coach Factory vide allotment order No. 23 -W/Allotment dated 08.11.1998. The respondent wanted the appellant to shift to Amritsar, whereto, the latter did not accede, because of being on permanent job and it would have been difficult for him to undertake journey everyday to attend his duty from Amritsar to Kapurthala.

(2.) APPELLANT being financially affluent than the respondent, the latter could not compel the former to choose the place of residence as per her wish. The respondent was posted as Mistress in Sri Guru Harikishan Public School at Amritsar and was drawing salary less than the appellant. She accepted this job against the wishes and without the consent of the appellant, in order to satisfy her ego and vanity, with an intention to cause mental agony and harassment to the appellant. On 21.04.1994, the father of the respondent wrote a letter to the father of the appellant requesting him to send the respondent to Amritsar, as her brother Anil Sahejpal was coming to Amritsar on short leave from Hyderabad on 01.05.1994. The respondent was sent to Amritsar on 30.04.1994 with full preparation to stay there for a month at the request of her father, but the respondent did not return to Kapurthala to join the company of the appellant albeit his repeated visits to Amritsar in the months of August 1994, September 1994 and October 1994. The father of the appellant sent postal money order for 'Karwa Chauth' to the respondent that was duly received by her at Amritsar, but neither she nor her parents responded. The respondent refused to join the company of the appellant. This informal behaviour of the respondent had shaken the mental equilibrium of the appellant, as the behaviour of the former was sufficient to cause mental agony to the latter. She, thus, deserted the company of the appellant for incessant period of more than two years, without any sufficient and reasonable cause. No cohabitation resumed between the parties albeit best efforts made by the appellant and through the intervention of the Panchayat uptill January, 1995. Thereafter, the respondent lodged an FIR against the appellant and his family members including his father, mother and unmarried sister and they were arrested by the police on 13.05.1995. The respondent also filed a petition for maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C. against the appellant. This indicated that she had withdrawn herself from the society of the appellant with animus desire and to bring cohabitation permanently to an end and to forsake matrimonial alliance, thereby entitling the appellant to the remedy of divorce on the ground of desertion.

(3.) THE appellant was not aware of the registration of such FIR. On 13.05.1995, the respondent got father of the appellant, his father Narinder Dev Sharma, aged 67 years, his mother - Kamal Kanta, aged about 60 years, and his sister -Seema, aged about 34 years, arrested by the Amritsar police. Arrest of the appellant and his family members caused untold mental agony and harassment to him as also lowered his social status and of his family members in the society. False allegations were levelled deliberately with an intention to malign the social status and reputation of the appellant. It was also alleged in the F.I.R. that the appellant, his parents and sister started making demands of more dowry i.e. Scooter and Colour Television, from the respondent and the latter also levelled false allegations regarding the demand of Rs. 50,000/ - from her parents in the month of January, 1994 and also alleged another demand of Rs. 1 lac in the month of March, 1994 for investing the same in the construction of the house.