Judgment :-

Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, J.

Leave granted.

2. The appellant has preferred this appeal against the judgment dated 9th March, 2007 passed by the Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur in DB Civil Miscellaneous Appeal No. 332 of 1998 whereby the Division Bench upheld the judgment dated 13th February, 1998 passed by the Judge, Family Court, Jaipur dismissing the appellant’s petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act” for short).

3. The facts of the case are as follows:

The appellant and respondent are married to each other. The appellant preferred a petition for dissolution of marriage under Section 13 of the Act before the Judge, Family Court, Jaipur and brought on record the following facts:

The appellant and the respondent were married according to Hindu rites on 30th October, 1990 at Jaipur. For the first few days the respondent stayed at her matrimonial home and behaved well with family members of the appellant. However, upon her return from her parental house, after a few days of the marriage, her behaviour suddenly changed. Appellant claimed to be the only son of the family having two small sisters and old father to look after. The aforesaid fact was known to the respondent even prior to her marriage when appellant informed the respondent’s family that since there is no one to look after his aged father, his wife would have to look after him. But, upon her return from her parental place, the respondent started abusing her father-in-law by calling his name and by neglecting his welfare. She also pressurized the appellant to abandon his father and shift to another house. Since the appellant refused to succumb to her pressure, her behaviour became more and more cruel towards the appellant and his family members. Thereafter, without any rhyme or reason on 30th March, 1991 in the absence of appellant and his father, the respondent packed up her bags, collected her jewellery and left the matrimonial home. Since that date, she has refused to come back to the matrimonial home. On 5th December, 1991 she gave birth to a son, but the appellant was never informed either by the respondent or by his in-laws. When the appellant came to know about the birth of son, he went to see his wife at the Hospital, but he found her missing. Thereafter, the appellant went to his in-laws’ place but they refused to let him enter inside the house. Hence, the appellant could neither see his newly born child nor meet his wife. Furthermore, according to the appellant despite sending many persons to reconcile with his wife, the respondent consistently refused to come back to him. In this background, the appellant filed a petition under Section 13 of the Act before the Judge, Family Court, Jaipur for the divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion.

4. The respondent, on the other hand, filed written statement in the Family Court and narrated a totally different set of facts. She alleged that since from first night, the appellant came deadly drunk into the room and abused her for bringing insufficient dowry. Subsequently, she was shocked to learn that the appellant was earlier married to a woman known as ‘Shanta’ and had a son from the said marriage. According to the respondent, the aforesaid fact relating to first marriage was not revealed by the appellant in the matrimonial advertisement given by him on 8th April, 1990 in the daily newspaper “Rajasthan Patrika”. When she inquired about his first marriage she realized that the appellant had sought divorce on the exact same grounds as are pleaded by him in the present case. The respondent further claimed that once when the appellant had lost Rs.3,000/- in gambling, he forced her to go to her parental place and to bring Rs.3,000/- for him. Moreover, when her father retired from the service and had received retiral benefits of Rs.1,20,934/-, the appellant pressurized her to convince her father to part with Rs.50,000/- for him. Whenever, she refused to tal