M J NUGENT Vs. NENUGENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition the wife asks the Court to dissolve her marriage with the respondent on the ground of adultery and cruelty. The husband asks that his marriage with his wife should be dissolved on the ground of his wife's adultery. The wife filed a petition in this Court. The husband filed his in Jhansi. The husband's petition has been transferred to this Court, in order that both petitions might be heard together. The parties are Anglo-Indian domiciled in India, and they have throughout their married life lived in the United Provinces. This Court has therefore jurisdiction to hear and decide both the petitions. The wife, through her counsel, has admitted adultery and invites the Court to exercise its discretion in her favour.

(2.) The marriage took place in February 1925, and there are three children born of the marriage. Within a year of marriage the husband, who is a doctor in the Indian Medical Department, was transferred from Allahabad to Ranikhet. He appears from the very commencement of his married life to have been unable to resist the temptation of other women. Mrs. Nugent, when her husband was in Ranikhet, received from her husband's brother a letter asking her to come to Ranikhet. It was brought out in the cross-examination of Mrs. Nugent that the reason for this was that the brother thought her presence in Ranikhet necessary owing to the behaviour of her husband with another woman. A letter has been produced in this Court to the husband by the woman who at Ranikhet engaged his attention. Although the husband denies adultery with this girl, the terms of the letter make it clear beyond any possible doubt that adultery had been committed. No unmarried girl could possibly write such a letter to a man without having had very intimate relations with him. The wife says - and I believe her - that the husband confessed adultery with this girl, and that she forgave him. The marriage under the circumstances was unhappy. The husband complains that his wife was irritable; but he appears to have given her every reason to be irritable. On one occasion at Ranikhet in 1926, there was a quarrel between the husband and the wife in connexion with this woman. Mrs. Nugent says that her husband hit her and she fainted and was taken to the Orderly's room at the hospital. The husband in the course of his profession was transferred from place to place, and eventually in 1930 he was back again at Ranikhet. Mrs. Nugent had suspicions of his relationship with another woman at this time, and Dr. Nugent got angry and told his wife to leave the house. He gave her a letter at this time, which is in these terms: I have told Mrs. Nugent to leave my house, and I am willing to support her and the two children with Rs. 150 monthly, and from this day the children will be hers for ever and she is leaving my house being three months pregnant by me (her husband). P.S. And if my wile does not look after my children, I shall shoot her like a dog. Mrs. Nugent's character is good morally. I cannot prove that she has misbehaved herself in any way during the five years that she has been married to me.

(3.) This document is important in that the husband himself confesses that upto this date that is, November 1930, he had no complaint to make about his wife's conduct. Further it shows that the husband wished his wife to leave him. Mrs. Nugent subsequently came back to her husband. Dr. Nugent, however had made it perfectly clear that he no longer loved his wife and that he had no use for her. About the same time at Ranikhet the husband and wife had quarrelled at a dance. On reaching home the husband took a revolver from a drawer and threatened to shoot his wife. Dr. Nagent admits this. The revolve? was handed over to the Military Police. In 1931, Mrs. Nugent met a man called Harris. She admits candidly that she want away for three days with Harris and committed adultery with him. The husband condoned this adultery and they lived together again afterwards. In 1933 the husband was transferred to Jhansi. He did not wish his wife to come there. He had met there another young woman. He admits that he fell in love with her, and indeed asked her to marry him, the girl knowing that Dr. Nugent was a married man. Mrs. Nugent wrote and asked her husband to arrange for her to come to Jhansi. Dr. Nugent did not wish his wife to come to Jhansi. Mrs. Nugent however went there, and arranged for married quarters, but; the husband refused to sleep with her and on Inquiry confessed that he had fallen in love with another woman. In July 1933, the husband told his wife to leave him. At this time he wrote what have been termed "four chits." The first one says: "My wife has done me no wrong and I am forcing her to leave me." Second : "I am quite agreeable to put my wife out of my life altogether and I do not want to see her again." Third : "I have no more love or care for my wife." Fourth : "I love Miss Phyllis Lamont and I am unhappy because any wife is living with me. I was asked by my wife to give this to her in writing because the above is what I said to her." Mrs. Nugent seeing the position was hopeless left her husband and went to her mother. She tried however again to go back to her husband. Between this date a February, 1934, she went on two occasions to try and get him to come back to her. On those occasions she discovered in her husband's quarter bundles of letters from Miss Lamont to him. The husband denies adultery with Miss Lamont; but the terms of the letters, which are many and voluminous, make it clear that an adulterous connexion had been formed with this girl. The husband admitted that he was in love with her. He further admitted that he had gone to Rawalpindi from Jhansi with her, being three nights in the train. There was ample opportunity on this occasion for adultery. The wife has also produced a letter written to Dr. Nugent by his own mother at this time. The mother in terms accuses him of adultery with Miss Lamont and says that it is idle for him to deny it as she knows too well the nature of her son and his relationship with women in the past.