Insufficient evidence to prove allegations of adultery and cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act.

JUDGMENT

A.S. Chandurkar, J. - All these appeals can be conveniently decided by this common judgment especially in view of the fact that the Family Court by its common judgment dated 26.12.2014 has decided the proceedings together.

2. The facts giving rise to the present proceedings are that the appellant and the respondent were married on 23.06.1989. According to the appellant-Husband, the behaviour of the respondent-Wife was not good and she was not performing her marital duties as required. She used to leave the matrimonial house without informing her husband. It was alleged that the wife used to go to the house of one Gangadhar Dhoble by stating that he was her relative. The wife started maintaining illicit relations with him and this fact was stated by the persons in the vicinity of their house. Further according to the appellant, the character of the wife was not good and he had heard that the people in the locality were talking about his wife having illicit relations with a police constable. On 24.05.1990 when the husband had come home without going for his duty, he noticed that the wife and the said police constable were together at their house. It was further the grievance of the husband that the wife had deserted him since long and he could not live with her because of her adulterous life. Both of them were living separately from 24.06.1990. Thus, on the ground that the marriage between the parties had broken down and there was no hope of reconciliation the husband on 22.09.2009 filed petition bearing No.A746/2009 seeking dissolution of the marriage under the provisions of Sections of 13(l)(ia)(ib) of the Hindu Marriage Act (for short 'the said Act').

3. The wife in turn initiated proceedings bearing No.C-34/1993 for enhancement in the amount of maintenance while the husband filed petition bearing No.C-103/2008 for cancelling the order granting maintenance..

4. Before the Family Court, the parties completed their pleadings after which they led evidence in respect of their stands as taken. The learned Judge of the Family Court by his common judgment dated 26.12.2014 recorded a finding that the husband had failed to prove that the wife had treated him with cruelty after solemnization of the marriage. He had also failed to prove that the wife had deserted him for a period of not less than two years immediately before presentation of the petition. Accordingly petition No.A-746/2009 came to be dismissed. This adjudication was challenged in Family Court Appeal No.37/2015. In the proceedings for enhancement in the amount of maintenance the Family Court directed payment of amount of Rs.5,000/- per month as maintenance from the date of filing of the petition. This adjudication is challenged in Family Court Appeal No.64/2015. Similarly, the proceedings for cancelling the grant of maintenance came to be dismissed and that adjudication has been challenged by the husband in Family Court Appeal No.65/2015.

5. Smt. M.N. Hiwase, learned counsel for the husband submitted that the husband had led sufficient evidence on record to prove that the conduct of the wife was of such a nature that it resulted in cruelty to the husband. It was the specific case of the husband that the wife had illicit relations with Gangadhar Dhoble and he had led evidence in that regard to prove that on many occasions his wife and said Gangadhar Dhoble were seen together. Similarly the allegations as made against the wife and her illicit relations with the police constable had also been substantiated. On 24.05.1990 the husband had returned home without going for his duty when he had witnessed the presence of said police constable at his residence along with his wife. It was submitted that besides amounting to adultery such conduct also resulted in cruelty by the wife. On that basis, the husband ought to have been granted a decree for divorce on the ground of cruelty. The Family Court was not justified in giving importance to the non-joinder of Gangadhar Dhoble or t