In a divorce proceeding based on cruelty, the party alleging cruelty must prove the allegations by sufficient evidence. Failure to prove the allegations may result in the dismissal of the divorce suit.

( 1 ) THISFIRST appeal is at the instance of a wife in a suit for divorce filed by the husband and is directed against the judgment and decree dated 8th December, 1994 passed by the additional District Judge, 11th Court, alipore in Matrimonial Suit No. 12 of 1993 thereby passing a decree for divorce on the ground of cruelty.

( 2 ) THE husband filed an application for divorce under Section 27 (i) (d) of the Special marriage Act thereby praying for divorce on the sole ground of cruelty and the case made out by the respondent may be precised thus:

(a) The parties were married according to the Special Marriage Act and subsequently, a social marriage was solemnised on 21st february, 1985 at 8, Ram Mohan Roy Road, calcutta-700 009, the ancestral house of the husband.

(b) The husband was initially an employee of the United Industrial Bank but the said bank having been merged with the allahabad Bank, at the time of institution of the proceedings the husband was an employee of the Allahabad Bank. The wife, prior to her marriage, was an instructress in a physical training Institute and the marriage was an outcome of love affairs between the parties

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(c) The parties started their matrimonial life at 8, Ram Mohan Roy Road, Calcutta and from the very beginning, the wife demanded separate living from the parents of the husband and the members of his family. The husband tried to persuade the wife not to make unreasonable demand as he had some duty towards his parents and his brother and sister, he being the only earning member of the family

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(d) The conduct of the wife and her attitude was unbecoming of a married Hindu middle-class wife and she very often expressed her bad taste. She was vulgar in her languages and rough and indecent in her behaviour. The wife humiliated and used to debase the husband, his parents, sisters, brothers and brother-in-law

and even inflicted physical torture upon the husband. The following instances were referred to in the petition for divorce which according to the husband amounted to cruel torture :-

(i) Since the night of Fulsajya, the wife expressed her desire of living separately with the husband from the parents and bother and sisters of the husband and insisted on leaving the ancestral house of the husband and any objection or persuasion from the side of the husband turned the wife violent and she abused the husband with filthy language.

(ii) The husband purchased a plot of land in the village of South Garia from his relative in the year 1984 before marriage on the advice of his father after taking loan from his Bank and constructed a one storeyed building on the active supervision of his father which consisted of three rooms, kitchen, bath, privy and verandah during 1984-1986. The father and the brother of the husband gave hard labour during the construction of the house and as the husband was then posted at Haroa Branch and lived there in the manager's quarter he could not look after the construction of the building. The wife had very much greed for the money and whenever the father of the petitioner asked for the money for construction of the house kept by the husband with the wife, she used to pass very caustic and dirty remarks towards her father-in-law.

(iii) The wife did not perform any household duties during her stay with the parents and she would flare up when the husband tried to persuade her to do household works.

(iv) Whenever the husband used to meet his old friends and associates, the wife abused him in very dirty languages and washed off vermilion mark from her forehead and left the matrimonial house for her father's house and sometime to unknown destination and after 10/12 days she used to come back of her own. One day in the month of August, 1985, the husband after returning from office went to the local club to meet one of his old friends when his brother rushed to the club and asked him to go back home at once as the respondent started nuisance in the house and