PAWAN KUMAR Vs. HARDESH KUMARI KAKRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by Pawan Kumar, appellant, is directed against the judgment and decree dated 6th October, 1984 of the learned Additional District Judge, Ambala, dismissed the petition of the appellant under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act (for short the 'Act') for grant of decree of divorce on the ground that the respondent- wife had deserted the appellant. It has been filed in the following circumstances.

(2.) Pawan Kumar, appellant, was married to Hardesh Kumari on 4th December, 1977. The parties lived as husband and wife and co-habited at Ambala till mid January, 1978, when both the spouses went to Delhi to the parental house of the respondent. They lived together for about 1-1/2, months. At the time of the marriage the appellant was unemployed. The respondent gave birth to a son on 15th October, 1978 at Delhi. It is the appellant's case that the respondent left the matrimonial home on 2nd October, 1979 without any excuse. Thereafter, she had refused to come and live with the appellant. The appellant went to bring back the respondent thrice in October 1979, July 1980 and lastly in March, 1982 but the respondent did not agree to come back and her father did not agree to send her with the appellant. The appellant had met with an accident in August, 1981. Even after coming to know about this, the respondent did not come to the appellant to look after him She does not want to live with the appellant. She is doing service in Delhi which she does not want to leave. She has deserted the appellant. The appellant was compelled to file a petition under Section 13 of the Act for divorce.

(3.) The respondent-wife resisted this petition. She denied the allegations made therein. She denied that she had ever deserted the appellant. She had always been ready and willing to live with the appellant and had always tried to live with him as his wife. The petitioner and his mother had maltreated the respondent. They used to taunt her as they were not satisfied with the dowry given to her by her parents. They used to ask her as to why she has not brought the clothes etc. on the ceremonial occasions. The appellant started finding faults with her and even started beating her. Towards the end of 1979 she was mercilessly beaten and turned out of her matrimonial house and she stayed for the night at the house of the maternal uncle. Her mother and father came there and she narrated the whole episode to them. The father of the respondent along with the respectables went to the house of the appellant but he and his mother refused to keep the respondent. She has reiterated that she was still ready and willing to live with the petitioner as his wife.