JAGJIT SINGH Vs. MOHINDER KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS second appeal is directed against the judgment and decree of the learned District Judge, Ludhiana, dated 1st April, 1967, whereby reversing the decree of the trial Court, he has dismissed the suit of the Appellant Jagjit Singh for declaration that his marriage with the Respondent Shrimati Mohinder Kaur, stood dissolved and the relationship of husband and wife no longer existed between them.

(2.) THE Appellant Jagjit Singh is a lecturer in a College at Ludhiana, while the Respondent Mohinder Kaur is a teacher in a Government Co -educational Middle School at that very place. They were married according to Anand Marriage rites on the 14th December, 1061, at village Chaminda in the district of Ludhiana. They lived together for some time and the only issue of their marriage is a daughter, who was hardly 2 1/2 years of age, when the suit out of which this appeal has arisen was instituted by the Appellant claiming declaration that the marriage between him and the Respondent stood dissolved by way of divorce and there was no longer any relationship of husband and wife between them.

(3.) IN resisting the suit Shrimati Mohinder Kaur not only vehemently denied that her marriage with the Appellant was ever dissolved but also pleaded that the suit was not maintainable in view of the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act (25 of 1955); that the parties were not governed by the Punjab Customary Law in the matter of marriage and divorce and it was only in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 that the marriage between them could be dissolved. On the pleading of the parties, the trial of the suit proceeded on the following issues: