A court can take into consideration events which may have taken place subsequent to the filing of the suit and grant relief on their basis where the relief as claimed originally in the suit may have become inappropriate by reason of altered circumstances and where this may appear to be necessary in order to shorten unnecessary litigation or to subserve the substantial interest of justice.

( 1 ) THE respondent Kishan Lal led a petition against his wife Pushpa Rani for dissolution of their marriage under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act The husband alleged that they were married on March 10, 1974 and were living in the house of, and along with the family of, Hans Raj Juneja and his wife Bindra Devi whom the husband treated as his parents. He further alleged that the wife used to pick up quarrels with him and threatend to involve him in some criminal case. On July 28, 1976 at about 10. 30 a. m. while he was in the bath room, she tried to commit suicide by pouring kerosene oil on herself and setting herself to fire in the kitchen. On hearing her shrisks, he rushed to her rescue. He and Smt. Bindra Devi removed her to hospital, where she was looked after by Junejas. Moved by her entreaties, he agreed not to report the ture facts to the police, lor the sake of matrimonial happiness. But she resumed threatening him with dire consequences, and declared that she would not live with him. He was. therefore, forced to leave her at the house of her parents on September 4, 1976. Since then she did not return to her matrimonial home.

( 2 ) ON July 4. 1977 she filed an application under section 125, Criminal Procedure Code. for maintenance alleging inter alia that the husband all the time danced attendance en Bindra Devi and bought presents for her and carried her to places of entertainment. In his reply of October 18, 1977 the husband charged that her brother used to visit her secretly and used to be closed with her for long intervals giving rise to the suspicion that she was having some extra-marital relations with him.

( 3 ) THE husband made the present petition on January 10, 1979 seeking divorce on the ground both of cruelty and desertion.

( 4 ) THE wife in her reply to the divorce petition, denied that she attempted suicide. Rather, the fire was accidental. She admitted that she was taken into the hospital by petitioner Krishan Lal. But she denied the claim of the husband that he was a sort of a son to the Junejas or that he was adopted or educated in their house. As a matter of fact, after the husband s father died. he left the family home and came to live with the Junejas. She repeated the allegation that the husband all the time danced attendance on Bindra Devi, brought clothes and presents for her and took her out to cinema shows and various other places o entertainment. He not only ignored the wife, but rather went out of way to insult, humiliate and even assault her on the slightest pretext, specially on the ground that she did not bring any dowry. She alleged that earlier also, once he left her at her parents house against her consent and when she returned on August 14, 1975 he made a condition that her parents will not visit her, and on July 27, 1976 when her mother happened to visit her, the husband got annoyed and started abusing her in the presence of the mother and beat her. She denied desertion and cruelty.

( 5 ) THE learned trial Judge, after recording evidence gave no categorical (inding whether any attempt at suicide was proved or not and whether the fire was accidental. But he commented that the wife was ungrateful and denied the help which the husband and junejas had extended to her at the lime of and after the occurrence. Her denial was an act of cruelty. She even imputed that there was an illicit relationship between him and Bindra Devi. She had only just hinted at it in her written statement but when the husband appeared in the witness box and deposed that he treated H. R. Juneja and Bindra Devi as his father and mother, the wife directly put him a suggestion that there was an illicit relationship between Bindra Devi and him. The husband denied it. Bindra Devi deposed that they were like parents to him. She had brought up the husband as her son; she was 47 years of age, her own eldest daughter was 29 years and her sons were aged 26 and 23 years respectively. She was questioned whet