JAGJIT SINGH Vs. GURMIT KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT -husband has filed this appeal against the judgment and decree of the Trial Court in Hindu Marriage Act Case No. 15 of 1989 decided on 19. 3. 1991.

(2.) THE appellant filed the petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act (hereinafter referred to as to Act), on the ground that the respondent-Gurmit Kaur was married to him on 18. 11. 1984 at Karnal, according to Hindu rites. Thereafter, they cohabited at Jagadhri and performed their matrimonial obligations, Gurmit Kaur gave birth to a daughter on 7. 11. 1985 out of this wed-lock. He contended that right from the very beginning of the marriage, the respondent's attitude towards him and towards his family members was cruel. She used to insist that he should leave his family and settle down at Karnal. Since the petitioner was looking after his old parents, unmarried sister and three brothers, he could not accede to her wishes which further strained relations between the two. She started quarrelling on trivials. In the beginning of 1986, once in that extreme mood of quarrelling, she fell down his mother on the floor, and she sustained injuries thereby. She has caused mental and physical cruelty to the appellant. Her this cruel behaviour caused a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the petitioner that it could be harmful and injurious for the appellant to live with the respondent. In the month of May, 1986, the respondent left the matrimonial home without any reasonable cause or excuse. After a week, her father came to him and asked to shift his business from Jagadhri to Karnal, failing which the respondent will not be allowed to join him. Again, he expressed his inability to leave his family members, but enraged his father-in-law, who left saying that the respondent would not be sent to Jagadhri. He lodged a report at Police Station, Jagadhri, on 9. 6. 1986 to that effect. Thereafter, the petitioner and his parents made several efforts to bring her back, but all in vain. Since then, the respondent has not come back to the matrimonial home. Hence the petition for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce is filed on the ground of cruelty and desertion.

(3.) ON these pleadings, four issues were framed and parties led their evidence. The Trial Court disbelieved the appellant's evidence that the respondent behaved cruelly or she has deserted the appellant. As both the grounds were held not proved' the petition was dismissed.