SARBJIT KAUR Vs. LAKHVIR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sarbjit Kaur, the appellant-wife, is before this Court, by way of instant appeal under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short 'the HMA') to assail correctness of judgment and decree dated 25.02.2011, whereby learned Additional District Judge, Jalandhar, has allowed the petition (No.H.M.A. Case MP./85 of 2006), which was brought by the respondent- husband for dissolution of his marriage with the appellant-wife on the ground of cruelty and desertion citing various instances of cruelty attributable to the appellant-wife.

(2.) In brief, the facts are that the respondent-husband was initially married with one Baljinder Kaur @ Kulkiran Kaur and out of the said wedlock, three children, namely, Davinder Kaur (daughter) and Ranjit Singh and Onkar Singh (sons) were born. The said marriage of respondent-husband and Baljinder Kaur was dissolved with mutual consent under Section 13-B of the HMA vide judgment and decree dated 25.02.1997. It is alleged that after dissolution of first marriage, the respondent-husband got married with appellant-wife on 13.10.2000, after apprising her about dissolution of his first marriage. After the marriage, both the parties started living together as husband and wife, however, no child was born out of this wedlock. Appellant- wife failed to conceive despite getting proper medical treatment. When she came to know that she was unable to bear a child, she started behaving in a strange manner. She started quarreling with the respondent and other members of his family on a trivial issues and she started creating scene in her matrimonial home over petty issues. She refused to cook food. Devinder Kaur, daughter of the respondent-husband from his first marriage was studying in BDS in the State of Karnataka. The appellant-wife tried to obstruct her studies. She also started ill-treating Ranjit Singh son of the respondent-husband from his first wife and on this he was shifted to boarding school at Dehradun. The appellant-wife also started ill-treating her mother-in-law and even assaulted her. Once, she also tried to strangulate the youngest son of the respondent- husband from his first wife. When the parents of the appellant-wife came to know about the said incident, they visited her matrimonial home and took her along with them to Amritsar and while leaving the matrimonial home, she took away gold jewellery weighing six tolas and cash worth Rs.8,000/- along with her. Thereafter, she never came back. All the efforts made by the respondent- husband for reconciliation had failed. Hence, the divorce petition was filed.

(3.) The divorce petition was contested by the appellant-wife, who filed written statement. The marriage between the parties was admitted, however, it was pleaded in the written statement that the respondent-husband had suppressed the material facts while approaching the Court. At the time of the marriage, the respondent-husband did not disclose about the dissolution of his first marriage with Baljinder Kaur. So, the respondent-husband played fraud with her. It was denied that she maltreated her husband and his children from the first marriage. Rather, she properly looked after the children of her husband, from the first marriage, with love and affection. It was also pleaded that her husband did not allow her to conceive the child and he and his parents treated her with cruelty. The other averments of the divorce petition were denied being wrong. It was pleaded that the divorce petition be dismissed.