CHANDAN KUMARI Vs. JEEWAN LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Civil First Appeal is directed against the Judgment and decree of the learned District Judge, Poonch, dated 6th June, 1974 by which he granted a decree of Judicial separation under section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act on a petition of the respondent.

(2.) The brief facts on the basis of which the petition was filed by the respondent. Dr. Jeewan lal, under section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, may be noticed first;

(3.) The parties were married in the town of Poonch on 11th December, 1969, according to Hindu rites. According to the respondent, the parties lived together as husband and wife for a period of only one month whereas according to the appellant the parties lived together for a period of two months. The respondent at the time of his marriage, was working as a Dental Surgeon in the District Hospital, at Rajouri. According to the respondent, the appellant right from the time of her marriage was behaving in a very strange manner like a person of unsound mind. In his petition under section 10 of the Hindu Marriage Act, the respondent alleged that during the time when the parties lived together he gathered an impression from the talks of the appellant that she had earlier had illicit sexual relations with some third person before her marriage; that on discovery of this the respondent got such a shock that ne became ill; that the appellant did not care for his illness, did not look after him and without any reasonable cause and without even informing him, she went to her parents house on 1st or 2nd of January, 1970, and thereafter, continuously deserted him without any justification. It is further averred by him that inspite of all the draw backs of the appellant, the respondent tried his best to bring her back to the matrimonial home but the appellant and her parents prevented the parties to resume normal matrimonial relations The respondent also urged that without any fault on his part the appellant had wilfully deserted him for a period of more than two years from the beginning of and that the appellant and been for a period of more than two years from the marriage been of unsound mind. The respondent prayed for a decree of judicial separation for the two reasons to quote the respondent in his own words: