SANT RAM Vs. KAMLESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE husband-appellant filed a petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act (to be referred as "the Act") on 23.7.1999 seeking dissolution of his marriage with the wife-respondent, through a decree of divorce, on the ground of desertion. The trial Court having dismissed the same, he has come up in appeal, to this Court.

(2.) MARRIAGE of the parties was solemnised on 24.11.1993, at Ferozepur, according to Hindu rites and ceremonies. Thereafter, they lived and cohabited together as husband and wife, till 5.1.1995. As per the case of the appellant, the respondent could not adjust in the joint family. She used to pick-up quarrels on petty matters and would go to her parental house, very frequently. She had also been pressurising the appellant to live at her parents house, at Ferozepur. The brother of appellant had died, leaving behind wife and children, and the respondent did not want that appellant should look after or maintain them.

(3.) THE case of the respondent is that the appellant had, infact, earlier filed two divorce petitions. One was dismissed as withdrawn and the other was dismissed on merits. Plea of res judicata was taken up and so was that of estoppel. It was denied that the respondent had deserted the appellant, without any sufficient cause, for a continuous period of two years immediately preceding the filing of this petition. According to the respondent, she had always been ready and willing to live with him. She further pleaded that she had always been co-operating with the appellant in looking after and maintaining the wife and the children of his deceased brother.