MANORAMA SINHA Vs. BIJOY KUMAR SINHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application in revision arises out of a proceeding instituted by the opposite party, the husband of the petitioner, under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, for dissolution of their marriage and a decree for divorce on the ground of desertion. The matter has come to this court against an order dated 19th September, 1977, passed by the learned Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi, refusing to decide the question of jurisdiction as a preliminary point in the aforesaid proceeding which was registered as Title Suit No. 25 of 1976.

(2.) The case of the husband in his petition is that he was married with the petitioner at Patna on 29th of May, 1969, according to the Hindu rites. After the marriage, the petitioner stayed with her husband at Arrah for about a week. The husband also sometimes visited the petitioner at her parents' house at Patna in 1970 and 1971, but the petitioner did not allow the husband to consumate the marriage and "had now deserted the petitioner for more than two years."

(3.) The question of jurisdiction has been raised in view of the provision contained in Section 19 of the Hindu Marriage Act, according to which a petition under the Act can be presented only to such District Court ''within the local limits of whose ordinary original civil jurisdiction the marriage was solemnized or the husband and wife reside or last resided together." in order to make his petition cognizable by the District Court at Ranchi the husband made the following statements in his petition: