Judgement Key Points

JUDGMENT - 1. This second appeal raises novel and difficult points with regard to the relations between a modern educated husband and his wife in Hindu Society.

2. The appellant in this appeal is the husband Dr. Narayan Ganesh Dastane. The respondent is his wife Mrs. Sucheta Narayan Dastaoe. They were married according to Vedic rites on May 13, 1956 in Poona. A daughter Shobha was born on March 11, 1957, a second daughter Vibhavari was born on March 20, 1959, and before the third daughter. Prabha was delivered, the husband and wife unfortunately fell out as it is undisputed that they have been living separately from each other since March 1961.

3. On February 19, 1962, the appellant filed the petition from which the present second appeal arises. In that petition the appellant prayed in the first instance for a declaration annulling the marriage under Section 12 (1) (c) of the Hindu Marriage Act on the ground that the consent of the husband for the marriage was obtained by fraud. According to the husband, the wife was suffering from schizophrenia and she was treated in the Mental Hospital Yeravda some time in the year 1954; but schizophrenia was an incurable and dangerous form of unsoundness of mind, being hereditary and recurring; and these facts were suppressed from the husband before he consented for the marriage. The husband alleged that the parents and the relatives of the wife had known or ought to have known that the respondents disease was diagnosed as schizophrenia before her marriage was settled with the petitioner and that they had deliberately concealed this fact from the petitioner and his father and deliberately gave them to understand and made them believe that the nature of the illness was simply a sunstroke and cerebral malaria. It is on this ground that the husband prayed for the decree of nullity of the marriage. In the alternative; the husband prayed for a decree of divorce under Section 13 (1) (iii) on the ground that the wife had been incurably of unsound mind for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately before the presentation, of the petition. Finally, in the alternative, the husband prayed for a decree for judicial separation under Section 10 (1) (b) alleging that the wife treated him with such cruelty as to cause a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the husband that it would be harmful or injurious for him to live with her.

4. The wife in her written statement denied the allegations made in the petition and contended that she was and is always ready and willing to go and live with the petitioner.

5. The learned Civil Judge, Senior Division, by his judgment and decree dated July 31, 1965 while dismissing the claim of the husband for a decree for nullity of marriage and divorce ordered the husband to pay Rs. 400 per month as interim maintenance till the end of January 1965 and Rs. 280 per month from February 1, 1965 till the date of the judgment under Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act and further directed that on full payment of arrears of interim maintenance as ordered, the petitioner was entitled to a decree for judicial separation under Section 10 (1) (b) of the Hindu Marriage Act against the wife, He also ordered that the petitioner should pay Rs. 280 per month as future maintenance to the respondent and children under Sections 25 and 26 of the Hindu Marriage Act and directed that the children of the petitioner and respondent should be in the custody of the respondent till they attained majority while at the same time ordering that in the interest of the children and the petitioner and the respondent, the petitioner must be given interview with the children once in a fortnight at a convenient place, preferably a public park or a residence of a common friend. The learned Judge ordered the parties to bear their own costs.

6. The wife filed Civil Appeal No. 700 of 1965 against the decree or judicial separation. The husband filed Civil Appeal No. 722 of 1965 against the decree refus

Click Here to Read the rest of this document