The main legal point established in the judgment is that the concealment of material facts, such as mental illness and inability to conceive, in order to obtain consent for marriage amounts to fraud and can lead to the nullity of the marriage under S.18 of the Indian Divorce Act.

K.A. Abdul Gafoor, J.

This is a petition filed under S.18 of the Indian Divorce Act. Husband is the petitioner. He seeks a decree declaring his marriage with the respondent as null and void. Parties belong to Roman Catholics. They got married on 29.4.1990 at Elanjipra Church as per Christian rites. Thereafter, they lived together till 10.11.1990 when the respondent's father took the respondent from the petitioner's house to her own house.

2. The ground urged in this petition is that respondent was mentally ill at the time of marriage and she continues to be so, even now and this fact was suppressed from the petitioner, and concealing this fact, consent of the petitioner was obtained for marriage. Had the mental status of the respondent been divulged, the petitioner would not have given consent for the marriage. Thus, there was fraud. Petitioner also submitted that respondent had told him that she had no menstruation at any time and even after marriage. She had Gynecological defect and she was unable to conceive, which is the primary aim of the marriage. The fact that the respondent is unable to conceive had been withheld from the petitioner before marriage and that also amounts to fraud, the petitioner submits.

3. Though notice was served on the respondent she did not appear and she remained absent during the trial of this case. Evidence in this case consists of PW 1 to 3 and Ext. A(1). PW 1 is the petitioner himself. PW-2 a Psychiatrist, with whom the petitioner had consulted taking the respondent when the respondent had shown symptoms of mental sickness after the marriage. PW-3 is the petitioner brother who testifies unnatural behaviour of the respondent at the petitioner's house. Ext. A (1) is the prescription by PW-2.

4. Petitioner had deposed that "Even on the first day of the marriage I was told by the respondent that she had been under the treatment of a Gynecologist in a Mission Hospital at Chalakkudy". It was also deposed by him that the respondent had told him that doctors had advised that she was incapable of conceiving, and that the doctors had advised her not to have a married life in view of the Gynecological problem of inability to conceive. He has submitted that during the six months that he lived with the respondent, the respondent did not menstruate even once. He submits that this inability of the respondent had been suppressed from him. He also deposed that immediately after marriage the respondent was behaving abnormally, she was in the habit of getting up suddenly from bed during night and going out of the bed room and sitting along dabbling her feet in the rain water and enjoying it. She even used to inflict injury on him by catching hold of his arm and squeezing his neck. When she was asked about this behaviour, she used to say that she did not remember what she had done. He had talked about this behaviour to her parents. Then they showed helplessness and said that it was God's fate. Thus, the petitioner realised that the respondent was suffering from mental illness. Petitioner took her to PW-2 in a mental hospital at Trichur. He had prescribed certain medicines and the doctor advised that respondent's condition cannot be cured permanently and it was a chronic disease. Petitioner submits that the respondent was not regular in her bathing habits. This mental state of affairs had never been told before marriage and had it been divulged, necessarily, the petitioner would not have married her, the petitioner deposes. Petitioner further submits that "my consent was obtained by playing fraud".

5. PW-2, the doctor deposed that "the disease which Molly was having is known as Hippomania" with symptoms of sleeplessness, odd-behaviour and aggressive tendency. He was unable to say whether/he illness developed either before or after the marriage. He is of opinion that "it might have developed either before or after marriage". But he confirmed that the illness is a recurring one and it requires continuous treat