RANI DEVI Vs. HUSSAN LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 'Cruelty' as a matrimonial offence is not necessarily a male preserve, and certainly not so where it is the husband and his relations who are at the receiving end, as in the case here. There is ample material on record to show the quarrelsome nature of the wife and of the occasions when she had gone to the extent of beating up not only her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law but her husband too. Not without significance in this behalf being the observation of the trial Court to the effect that the husband was a frail looking young man compared to the robust and heavier built wife.

(2.) According to the husband, the trouble between him and his wife started about a year after their marriage when she began pressurising him to live separately from the other members of his family. He deposed in this behalf that he was not only the eldest but also the sole earning member of the family and he could not, therefore, live apart from them. His wife then started quarrelling with him and his relations, and would, on occasions, beat up his old mother and young sisters. Particular reference was made to the incident of October 1980 when after quarrelling with his mother and sisters, she left the house and went to her parents' home. He was not there at that time when this happened. He then accompanied by his father and two respectables Sunil Kumar and Krishan Kumar, went to bring her back but she refused.

(3.) There is evidence on record to show that it was invariably the husband who sought reconciliation with his wife when troubles arose. Mention here must, in the first instance, be made to the testimony of the husband Hussan Lal regarding the application made to the Balmik Sabha for the settlement of differences between them. When this could not be done, he filed the application Ext. D/1 before the Red Cross Association. A compromise, he stated, was then arrived at but as soon as she came out of the office of the Association, she refused to accompany him to his house. To prove the application Ext. P/1, there is the testimony of P.W. 1 Mrs. Ravi Jain.