MOHAN LAL SHARMA Vs. PARVEEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the husband is directed against the judgment and decree dated 10.3.1998 passed by the learned Additional District Judge, Amritsar dismissing the petition filed by the appellant seeking a decree of nullity and annulment of marriage under sections 11, 12(i)(c) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short the Act).

(2.) Facts leading to the filing of the present appeal are that the parties were married as per Hindu rites at Amritsar on 12.3.1991. The parties cohabited as husband and wife but no issue was born from the wedlock. The respondent/wife left the house of the appellant on 11.8.1991 after the fact of her first marriage was discovered. The respondent was said to have been married to one Naresh Kumar on 23.11.1987 at Amritsar. After the marriage, the respondent/wife lived and cohabited with Naresh Kumar as his wife at Amritsar, New Delhi and Germany.

(3.) The respondent/wife had gone to Germany on 1.6.1988 and returned on 13.7.1988. She again visited Naresh Kumar in West Germany on 13.8.1988 and returned to India on 5.9.1988. Marriage between the respondent and Naresh Kumar was said to be still subsisting and the divorce petition filed under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act was said to be pending in the court of learned Additional District Judge. Delhi. The case set up by the appellant was that the respondent and her family members had fraudulently and dishonestly misrepresented and had not disclosed the fact of previous marriage of the respondent.