Mere allegations of cruelty, without specific incidents or particulars, do not constitute a ground for divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

( 1 ) THIS appeal arises out of a judgment and decree passed in Matrimonial Suit No. 45 of 1995 initiated on an application under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 by the husband petitioner.

( 2 ) THE facts which are relevant for disposal of the present appeal and stated in the petition under section 13 aforesaid are that the petitioner appellant and the respondent wife were married according to Hindu Rites on August 2,1993. The petitioner husband is a physician having his private practice and the respondent wife is a service holder engaged in a computer firm. After few days of the marriage, the respondent started expressing various abnormal behaviour and started inflicting cruel treatment to the petitioner both physical and mental. The respondent wife is a person of suspicious mind and is to express suspicion against the character and integrity of the petitioner. Respondent wife always abused the petitioner with filthy languages and she generally stayed at her paternal house in spite of protest by the petitioner. The respondent wife is suffering from schizophrenic syndrome and occasionally burst out with anger without any cause and on several occasions, in such circumstances, physically assaulted the petitioner husband by fists and blows. On one occasion, she tried to throw a water bottle towards the petitioner who somehow escaped from hurting himself due to such throwing. The respondent wife intentionally never allowed the petitioner husband to have a normal sexual intercourse and probably for that reason there has been no issue of the parties. The respondent wife of and on threatened the petitioner husband and other members of the family that she would give a good lesson to them by making false allegations of torture to the police and thus she kept everybody of the family of the petitioner husband constantly frightened.

( 3 ) ON such pleading of cruelty the suit was originally filed. Thereafter the petition was amended by incorporating two paragraphs 9 (A) and 9 (b), wherein initiation of a proceeding under section 498a/406 of the IPC and taking away of the goods belonging to the respondent wife from the matrimonial home, have been pleaded.

( 4 ) THE wife respondent filed her written statement not only denying the allegations made in the petition but also pleaded, inter alia, that just 10/12 days after the

marriage the respondent wife noticed that Smt. Rupa Das Gupta the fourth sister-in-law (Jaa) of the respondent instigated the petitioner husband against the respondent and the petitioner husband was in the love with the said sister-in-law. Allegations of certain incidents relating to the said relation between the petitioner husband and the said sister-in-law have been also stated in the written statement. It was further stated that ultimately being assaulted by the petitioner and the members of his family with fists and blows and sustaining bleeding injuries on her person she was driven out from her matrimonial home on 9th March, 1993 and she was not allowed to take any of her belongings.

( 5 ) WHEN the suit was heard the husband petitioner deposed as P. W. 1 and also examined Smt. Rupa Das Gupta, the said sister-in-law as P. W. 2 and her husband Sri Aloke Das Gupta as P. W. 3.

( 6 ) THE wife respondent deposed as D. W. 1 and she also examined her brother sri Goutam Sen as D. W. 2, her office colleagues Smt. Pritha Majumder as D. W. 3 and Smt. Sikha Goswami as D. W. 4.

( 7 ) BY the impugned judgment the suit was dismissed and hence the appeal was filed.

( 8 ) HEARD Mr. Bidyut Kumar Banerjee the learned Counsel for the appellant and Mr. Jahar Lai Dey the learned Counsel for the respondent.

( 9 ) ON consideration of the petition under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage act, we find that though allegation of cruelty by the wife to the husband has been pleaded but no incident has been stated nor any particulars of any such cruelty has been pleaded. The allegations are bald in nature. The