SUCHA SINGH Vs. GURBACHAN KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a husband's appeal from the judgment and decree of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Amritsar, dismissing his petition for dissolution of marriage under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

(2.) The appellant Sucha Singh was married to the respondent, Gurbachan Kaur on 7th April, 1957, at village Sakhipur in Tarn Taran tehsil. The parties lived as husband and wife at Jalalpur. The dissolution of marriage was sought by the husband under clause (iii) of sub-section (1) of Section 13 which permits a dissolution of marriage where the other parties as "has been incurably of unsound mind for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately proceeding the presentation of the petition". The petition for divorce was filed on 10th of November, 1960, and it was averred that the respondent-wife remained unresponsive and indifferent and kept to herself. She did not become enceinte and her attitude to life was somewhat abnormal. The husband took his wife to a doctor who gave his opinion that she was insane. When this finding of the doctor was conveyed by the husband to the parents of the respondent, they did not profess ignorance of the ailment and the appellant was informed that they tried to have her cured of this disease before the marriage. The parents of the girl, according to the husband, had hoped for the best and expected that the respondent-wife would assume normally after marriage. The suspicions of the husband, according to the assertions made in the petition, were confirmed when she was examined in the Military Hospital by the doctor in June, 1960.

(3.) The petition proceeded ex parte in the first instance and later Hazara Singh, the father of the respondent wife was impleaded a guardian and the petition for dissolution of marriage was resisted and opposed.