The court's findings of mental and physical cruelty and irretrievable breakdown of marriage were based on the totality of the evidence, including the wife's admissions in her letters and the testimony of witnesses.

( 1 ) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment passed by the learned Additional District Judge, 14th Court, Alipore, 24-Parganas (S) on 1-8-1989 in Matrimonial Suit No. 32 of 1987 by which the learned Court below dissolved the marriage between the parties of the suit underthe Hindu Marriage Act, by a decree of divorce. The said suit was filed by the husband/respondent on 7th of October, 1985 on the allegations of cruelty under S. 13 (I) (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

( 2 ) BRIEFLY stated the case of the plaintiff/ respondent is as follows :-THE marriage of the parties was solemnized according to Hindu rites and ceremonies on 9th February, 1982. At the time of the marriage wife /appellant was residing with her father at Udaipur, Rajasthan where she was born and brought up. During their stay at the official quarters provided by Durgapur Steel Plant after the marriage, the wife/appellant showed unusual habits and temperament and behaved with the husband/ respondent very rudely with absolute indifference towards the need of the husband/ respondent. She demonstrated abnormal sexual behaviour from the very beginning of the marriage. She was found very much selfish and self-centered. She did not care to look after the household duties, and as a result, the husband /respondent had to leave for his office on many occasions without any breakfast or to prepare breakfast for himself. In most of the evenings, the wife/respondent was staying away from the house on various pretexts and the respondent had to go out for night duty without taking meal. It is further alleged that the attempts of the respondent to persuade his wife to change her attitude and behaviour towards him were reacted with sharp unmannerly expression that being the daughter of a richman and not a servant in the respondent family she should be at liberty to act according to her own liking. The appellant/wife, went to Udaipur for sometime in the year, 1982 and on her return from there in or about June, 1982 she expressed resentment over the staying of the mother of the respondent who was staying with him at Durgapur and wanted him to send her back to Calcutta. On being refused, the wife/appellant started causing mental and physical torture upon the husband by not allowing him to take rest or sleep throughout the whole day after working in the night duty in a wretched mental and physical condition. As a result of which, the husband became seriously ill and he had to be hospitalised for about one month during the period July and August, 1982. It is further alleged that during this period, the old mother of the respondent was required to do all house hold works including cooking and she was subjected to extreme torture and ill-behaviour by the wife/ appellant and even did not care to visit her husband in the hospital and during the period when the respondent remain admitted in the hospital she visited such hospital only for once or twice. It is the further allegation that respondent suffered very severe mental distress when in December, 1982, he came to know that the wife/appellant was suffering from Kleptomania. It is the further allegation of the plaintiff/respondent that being aware of the pregnancy of the wife/appellant in or about January, 1984, the respondent took all necessary steps for her medical examination by a competent doctor at Durgapur Steel Plant Hospital. But for some unknown reasons, the appellant became more furious and cruel in her dealing and behaviour with him. She tried to set him on fire by pouring kerosene oil on his person. It is further case of the respondent/ plaintiff that the appellant/wife gave birth to a daughter at new Land Nursing Home on 26th September, 1984 wherefrom, the appellant/wife was taken to her parents house at Naktala, Calcutta. The husband/respondent was meted out with ill treatment and insult by the wife/appellant and her mother during the former's visit to Naktala house without any reason. During