Denial of sexual intercourse, whether due to sexual weakness or willful refusal, amounts to cruelty in matrimonial disputes, justifying the annulment of the marriage.

JUDGMENT

Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury, J. - Smt. Dipanwita Dasgupta and Sri Sandip Kumar Dasgupta are the estranged couple, who at one point of time got struck by the arrow of cupid but unfortunately their compatibility, according to Dipanwita Dasgupta, looked like a mirage, she filed a suit for annulment of marriage with alternative prayer for divorce and the suit was registered as Mat Suit No. 736 of 2008 while Sandip Kumar Dasgupta the husband filed a suit for restitution of conjugal rights, which was registered as Mat. Suit no.776 of 2011.

2. Learned Trial Judge was pleased to dismiss both the suits but without cost by a common judgement. Both the petitioners felt aggrieved and preferred appeals against the judgement and decree passed by learned Additional District Judge, Chandannagar, Hooghly, in the aforesaid suits, on 8th December, 2021.

3. We propose to dispose of the appeals by a common judgement.

4. Factual matrix of the Mat. Suit No. 736 of 2008 Fact of the case in short is that Dipanwita Dasgupta, resident of Haripal, after her graduation, bagged Master degree in music from Rabindra Bharati University. In early days of her career as singer she came across the respondent who appeared to be a smart and ambitious young man. They fell in love and decided to marry. On 30th November, 2006, the petitioner and the respondent got married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, followed by social marriage. Furniture, bedding, garments, ornaments and other articles were given at the time of marriage by the father of the petitioner and on the following day of marriage the petitioner/wife went to her matrimonial home at Sinthi, on the northern fringe area of Kolkata. On 2nd December, 2006, the very night of Fulsojja, the petitioner found her husband to be sexually vulnerable. The petitioner however, throughout the year of 2007- 2008, co-operated with the respondent so as to facilitate upon act of sexual intercourse by him, but in vain. According to the petitioner/wife, her husband willfully refused to consummate the marriage. When the respondent realized his worthlessness, he became arrogant, furious, hostile and he indulged in enormous physical and mental cruelty upon the petitioner. The respondent was interested in engaging the petitioner only to earn money and the major part of her income used to be appropriated by the respondent. The petitioner stated that her hard work to earn money was reciprocated by the respondent with torture, both physical and mental. The petitioner thereafter gave an account as to how she was tortured by the respondent/husband on different dates; on 22nd January, 2007 she was physically assaulted. On 8th June, 2007 the respondent abused by petitioner by calling her a cheap girl. In between 20th December, 2006 to 29th July, 2007 she was tortured by the respondent and his family members. Her movement was restricted by the respondent and it was relaxed at the time when she had to go out to earn money by taking part in musical programmes. On 18th April, 2008 in presence of her mother, the respondent humiliated the petitioner by calling her a whore and abused his mother-in- law.

5. According to the petitioner, the respondent made her father pay a sum of Rs. 2,20,000/- in the month of February, 2007 and Rs. 80,000/- in the month of March, 2008. The respondent bought two old vehicles, TATA Sumo in 2007 and a Maruti Suzuki car in the year 2008. Sometime in the month of May, 2008 she got a chance to perform in a television reality show on Zee Bangla Channel which came her way as an oasis. However, when she came back after shooting, the respondent used to abuse her even physically on one pretext or the other. On 22ndAugust, 2008 the petitioner was compelled to leave her matrimonial home, keeping all her belongings including ornaments over there. The respondent however, kept on threatening the petitioner over telephone. He was trying to blackmail her by giving threat to commit suicide. The petitioner filed the suit seekin