SATYA DEVI Vs. JANAK RAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal filed by Smt. Satya Devi against the order of Shri O. P. Gupta, Senior Subordinate Judge, Sirsa dated October 20, 1977, accepting the petition of her husband Janak Raj for judicial separation under section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act on the ground of desertion on her part.

(2.) The parties married on March. 4, 1970. The appellant gave birth to a child from the respondent a year after their marriage but the child did not survive. In 1972, she again became pregnant and gave birth to her second child at the house of her parents. This child also did not survive. The parties thereafter did not live together On July 24, 1976 the respondent filed a petition for judicial separation against the appellant on the grounds that she had deserted him for a continuous period of 4-1/4 years prior to the filing of the petition without his consent and sufficient cause and also she was living in adultery. It has further alleged that the appellant had treated him with cruelty as to cause reasonable apprehension in his mind that it will be harmful and injurious for him to live with her.

(3.) The appellant refuted the allegations made against her. She averred that the respondent, his uncle Milkhi Kam and his brother's wife Nirmala Devi beat her as a result of which her first child was lost. The respondent had forced her to leave his house because of the mat treatment and all her efforts and that of her father to live with him proved futile. Her fattier even took a Panchayat to the respondent for the purpose but the latter insulted the Panchayat and did not agree to abide by their advice.