Mrs. Kiran Jyoti vs Shri Kulbushan Kumar Rishi

Gokal Chand Mital, J.—The parties were married on 27th October, 1982, at Chandigarh. Both the parties belong to Chandigarh. The wife is a school teacher and the husband is in the Punjab Government service. On. 12.9.1984, the husband filed a petition u/s 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (for short ''the Act''), for dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty which was later on amended and ground of desertion was also added.

The wife contested the petition. Her case was that on 21.6.1983 she was turned out of the house, by the husband in three wearing clothes and she took shelter in the house of her father. The husband and her family members were alleged to be greedy persons and were not satisfied with the dowry and their demand increased every day and this is how he started ill-treating her.

On the contest of the parties, the following issues were framed: -

Whether the present petition is barred U/O 2 R 2 CPC?

Whether the marriage is liable to be dissolved on the grounds of desertion and cruelty?

On the evidence led in the case, the learned Additional District Judge, Chandigarh, by judgment and decree dated 2-6-1986, granted the decree of divorce after recording a finding that the wife had deserted the husband without any sufficient cause. This is wife''s appeal.

Three dales were fixed from time to time for the parties to appear for the purposes of reconciliation. Wife appeared on every occasion but the husband did not appear. On the first date of hearing for reconciliation, it was mentioned that the husband has fractured leg and, therefore, he could not appear. A date of his convenience was given but he did not appear for the second time nor today which is the third occasion. The wife is present. She has stated her woeful tale and the ill-treatment meted out to her and is so afraid of the husband that she is not prepared to live with him. She apprehends danger to her life. She has stated at the bar that under these circumstances she has no objection if the decree of divorce is upheld but has raised objection in regard to the adverse findings of the Court below about her allegations of demand of dowry by the husband.

After going through the facts of the case and considering the stand taken by the wife at the time of hearing today in Court, I am of the view that on the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, the decree of divorce deserves to be maintained and more so because the wife has not opposed the sustaining of the decree. Accordingly, the decree of divorce granted by the Court below is upheld.

The wife has initiated proceedings u/s 405 of the Indian Penal Code, which are pending before a Judicial Magistrate at Chandigarh, and she has also initiated the proceedings under the Prohibition of Dowry Act, 1961, for which the State Government has granted sanction and those proceedings are also pending in the Court. Under these circumstances, since the matter is pending before the Judicial Magistrate, no finding regarding the demand of dowry or whether the dowry was given or not, recorded by the Additional District Judge in these proceedings against the wife, deserve to be gone into in detail in this appeal and after setting aside those findings the matter is left open to be considered in the proceedings which are now pending before the Judicial Magistrate, whether u/s 405 of the Indian Penal Code or under the Prohibition of Dowry Act.

With the aforesaid observations, the appeal stands disposed of leaving the parties to bear their own costs,