JUDGMENT : (Per Smt. Ranjana Desai, J.)

1. Rule. Respondents waive service. By consent of the parties, taken up for hearing forthwith.

2. The appellant is the original respondent-husband and the respondent is the original petitioner-wife in Petition No.A-361 of 2007, which was filed in the Family Court No.3, Pune at Pune. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to them as the appellanthusband and the respondent-wife.

3. A petition was filed by the respondent-wife for restitution of conjugal rights under section 22 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 (for short, “the said Act”). The case of the respondent-wife was that she and the appellant-husband were married on 11/12/2003 at Pune under the provisions of the said Act. Both the parties are Christians by religion. It was a love marriage. The appellanthusband had not informed about this marriage to his parents. It is the case of the respondent-wife that notice of the marriage was given in September, 2003. After the marriage, which took place on 11/12/2003, the appellant-husband left the respondent-wife at Lonavla. He went to Dubai on 14/12/2003. He told the respondent-wife that after he would get a job, he would arrange for her Visa. After he got a job in Dubai, he told her that after he gets a better job, he would call her to Dubai. They were in contact with each other on telephone and through e-mails.

4. According to the respondent-wife, she lost her father on 28/4/2005. She therefore, requested the appellant-husband to be with her in India. He made some excuses for not coming to India. However, he used to regularly phone her till 21/5/2005. According to the respondent-wife, on 21/5/2005, the appellant-husband informed her that he was going to Saudi Arabia for a couple of days. On 28/5/2005, she got an SMS from the appellant-husband informing her that he was at Trivandrum Airport and proceeding to Chennai as his mother was very serious. He also told her that he would be in the hospital and would not be able to speak to her. In the third week of June, 2005, the appellant-husband telephoned her and informed her that his mother is discharged from the hospital and that he had to leave for Dubai via Colombo, Sri Lanka. Thereafter, the respondent-wife repeatedly asked the appellanthusband whether she can join him. The appellant-husband promised her that he will come to India on 3/1/2007.

5. According to the respondent-wife, on 3/1/2007, the appellanthusband informed her that he had written a detailed letter to her. She insisted that she wants to know about the contents of the said letter. The appellant-husband then informed that under pressure from his parents, he had married a girl called Beena Varghese on 30/5/2005. The respondent-wife thereafter asked the appellanthusband to come to India. On 14/6/2007, the appellant-husband met the respondent-wife at Lonavla. On the same day, he informed his parents about his marriage with the respondent-wife. His parents called the respondent-wife and accused her of cheating their son. They started harassing her. They wanted her to accept some amount as settlement and agree for a separation. According to the respondent-wife, they pressurized and threatened her. The appellant-husband left India on 17/1/2007 without informing her.

6. The further case of the respondent-wife is that after reaching Abu Dhabi, the appellant-husband called her and asked for a divorce. She refused to give divorce and asked him to return to India. On 20/1/2007, the parents of the appellant-husband along with other members of their family and a local counselor visited her parents' house. They tried to threaten the respondent-wife. They again visited her on 22/1/2007. According to the respondent-wife, she through her lawyer sent a notice to the parents of the appellant-husband and to the Priest of the Church in Pondanand, Kerala where the second marriage of the appellant-husband was performed. The Priest of the said Church sent a copy of the marriage certificate and an

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