KAMALPREET KAUR Vs. IQBAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant appeal has been preferred by the appellant-wife - Kamalpreet Kaur against the judgment and decree dated 14.08.2013 vide which the petition filed by the respondent-husband under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short 'the Act') seeking dissolution of marriage was allowed by the trial Court.

(2.) As per the averments made in the petition filed before the trial Court, the marriage between the parties was solemnized on 12.02.2010 at Amritsar as per Sikh rites and ceremonies. The parties resided and cohabited together as husband and wife at Amritsar where the marriage was consummated. A female child was born out of the said wedlock. The appellant-wife from the very beginning of their marriage, would behave in a very cruel and harsh manner. It was alleged that the appellant-wife was a short tempered lady and was in the habit of levelling false and frivolous allegations against the respondent-husband of having illicit relations with some other woman. It was also alleged that there was a lot of interference in their matrimonial life by the mother and relatives of the appellant-wife. Many a times, the appellant-wife was requested to mend her ways but the same fell on deaf ears. The appellant-wife's behaviour worsened with the passage of time and she did not even hesitate to humiliate the respondent-husband in the presence of one and all. The appellant-wife on one occasion had left the matrimonial home for no rhyme or reason and was brought back after a compromise was effected between the parties. It was further alleged that on 21.05.2010 the mother of the appellant-wife came to the matrimonial home of the parties at Amritsar while the respondent-husband, who is a doctor, was at his Mohali clinic and misbehaved with his parents in the presence of neighbours and threatened them that they would be falsely implicated in criminal cases. In fact the appellant-wife did not even hesitate to say that she was not interested in living in the house of the respondent-husband with his parents. When the respondent-husband offered to move to Mohali and set up their matrimonial home there, she out-rightly refused the offer as she was not willing to do any household work. She left the matrimonial home on 23.05.2010 and thereafter came back on 29.01.2011 to take away with her all her jewellery. She allegedly left the minor child of the parties with the parents of the respondent-husband while he was in Mohali, after threatening the respondent-husband and his family of implicating them in false criminal cases. On account of the aforementioned conduct of the appellant-wife, the respondent-husband sought dissolution of marriage as her behaviour had caused him acute mental tension, agony and cruelty.

(3.) Per contra the appellant-wife refuted and emphatically denied the averments and allegations levelled against her by the respondent-husband inter alia pleading that in fact it was the respondent-husband, who had been maltreating her and had turned her out from the matrimonial home. She claimed that the minor child was residing with her and had not been abandoned by her at any time and left with the respondent-husband as alleged. She also alleged that though her parents had spent more than Rs.21 lakhs on the marriage and had given sufficient dowry/istridhan at the time of the marriage, yet the respondent-husband and his family were dissatisfied with the same and all those dowry articles were still in the custody of the respondent-husband and his parents. She further alleged that soon after her marriage, she learnt that the respondent-husband had illicit relations with a nurse in his hospital. On questioning him about the same, the respondent-husband and his parents physically assaulted her and turned her out of the matrimonial home even though she was pregnant at that time. In the first week of September 2010, with the intervention of her relatives, the appellant-wife was allowed to return to her matrimonial home at Amritsar. Thereafter again, she was turned out of her matrimonial home on 29.01.2011 and since then she was residing along with her minor daughter at her parental home at Kapurthala. She had moved an application to SSP, Kapurthala for taking action against the respondent-husband and other members of his family.