Mental cruelty, condonation, and irretrievable breakdown of marriage are grounds for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

( 1 ) THE respondent husband filed an application before the learned District Judge, Alipore, South 24 Parganas, under section 13 (1) (1a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, for dissolution of his marriage with the appellant herein and the same was numbered as Matrimonial Suit No. 1022 of 1996. The suit was subsequently renumbered as Matrimonial Suit No. 55 of 1996 and was heard by the learned Additional District Judge, 7th Court, Alipore, who by his judgment and decree dated 21st June, 2000, allowed the suit on contest and passed a decree of divorce dissolving the marriage between the parties.

( 2 ) THE present appeal has been filed by the defendant wife against the said judgment and decree of the trial Court.

( 3 ) THE case as made out in the plaint is that the respondent was married to the appellant according to Hindu rites on 11th February, 1985. After the marriage, the parties initially resided at 2b Bhim Ghosh Lane, Calcutta - 700 006, and, thereafter, shifted to a rented house at 6/2d, Umakanta Sen Lane, P. S. Chitpore, Calcutta-700 040. A girl child, Debapriya, was born to the couple on 5th July, 1988.

( 4 ) IT was also the case of the respondent that his sister's daughter was staying with the family of the appellant to enable her to prosecute her studies at the Baghbazar Multipurpose School as it was difficult for her to attend school from her parents' residence at Kanchrapara. The appellant resented the said arrangement and ill-treated the respondent's said niece and behaved badly with her. From the very beginning of the marriage, the appellant also appeared to be indifferent towards the respondent and his widowed mother, sister and niece and was not conscious of her duties as a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law. After her marriage the appellant frequently visited her parents' home and neglected her family in her matrimonial home and took little interest in house-hold affairs. She did not care to assist the respondent's mother and sister in running the affairs of the family and even after the birth of her daughter, she often went out leaving the child, who was barely six months old at that time, at home.

( 5 ) IT is also the plaint case that the appellant used to mix with boys of ill repute in the locality and whenever the respondent protested the appellant would flare up and say that she was not a maid servant in the family and she required some form of recreation in life. The appellant subsequently developed an unusual intimacy with a young man named Burki Saha of Umakanta Sen Lane and the respondent came to learn from friends, neighbours and relations about the appellant's deep attachment with the said Burki Saha. The appellant stayed out till even 9 to 10 p. m. and was seen with Burki Saha in restaurants, cinema halls and at Dum Dum New Market, Northern Avenue and other places. The respondent and his family members were put to great embarrassment and had to suffer social disrepute. The respondent tried his best to persuade the appellant to give up her wayward way of life in order to prevent social scandal, but he failed to make any impression on her. Things reached such a state that in the first week of October, 1992, some of Burki Saha's family members came to the house of the respondent and complained that the appellant was spoiling Burki and threatened to take steps against the appellant unless she stopped seeing Burki. Such complaint and threats in the presence of several neighbours caused great embarrassment to the respondent and his family members but the appellant refused to mend her ways and ultimately on 20th October, 1992, she left her matrimonial home with her daughter and belongings and began to stay with her mother.

( 6 ) UNABLE to face local scandal and filthy remarks from the local boys and neighbours, the respondent shifted to his unfinished flat at 23/c, Wards Institution Street in January, 1994, and although the appellant had left her matrimonial home, he used to regularly send m