The main legal point established in the judgment is the interpretation of 'desertion' as a ground for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, emphasizing the intentional permanent forsaking and abandonment of one spouse by the other without consent and without reasonable cause.

1. This appeal arises from an Original Petition. The husband is the appellant. He wanted divorce under S.13 and 13A of the Hindu Marriage Act. The grounds alleged are desertion and cruelty. The courts below considered the evidence adduced in the case by the husband and wife and came to a conclusion that the husband failed to establish both grounds. The petition was dismissed. The husband appeals.

2. The facts necessary for the decision of this appeal are these: The marriage between the appellant and the respondent was on 6-11-1978. The appellant-husband is in the military service. After the marriage since his leave expired, he left his native village on 15-11-1978. From 6-11-1978 to 15-11-1978 the husband and wife were living together. When the husband left his house he instructed his wife to be in his house and that she should take care of his ailing mother. According to the husband even though strict instructions were given by the husband the wife did not obey those instructions and without the consent and permission of his mother she left the house. This important circumstance has been very strongly denied by the wife. According to the wife she was living in the house of the husband looking after her husband's mother. But she went to her house when she got information that her father was sick and admitted in a hospital.

3. It is in evidence that the husband returned to his native village on 19-3-1979. At the time when he returned to his house the wife was in his house. According to the husband the wife returned to the house of the husband only on 15-3-1979 knowing that the husband is returning to his native village on 19-3-1979. But it is admitted by both parties that from 19-3-1979 to 23-3-1979 the husband and wife lived together in the wife's house. On 23-3-1979 according to the husband, he wanted the wife to accompany him to his house. The case of the husband is that the request was refused by the wife. In this context a fact has to be stated. On the day of marriage of the appellant and respondent there was another marriage between the husband's sister and wife's brother. It is said that some rift and ill feeling between this couple remained unsettled. According to the husband the wife refused to accompany him on the ground that the rift between her brother and his wife (the sister of the husband) has not been settled. These allegations have been denied by the wife. According to the wife, she remained in her house since the husband promised that he will take her back to his house. Any how, after 23-3-1979 the husband and wife never lived together.

4. The question is whether there was willing desertion by the wife which constituted a ground for divorce on the facts proved in the case. There is no clear evidence in this case to show that the husband has made any attempt to take back the wife after 23-3-1979. Of course, it is contended that since on 23-3-1979 the wife has refused to accompany the husband, there was no useful purpose in repeating the demand to the wife to live with the husband.

5. The court below, after referring the evidence adduced in the case and appreciating the evidence of PWl the husband, and PW2 appellant's brother, found that the case pleaded by the wife is believable. According to the court below there was no intention for desertion on the part of the wife. It is true that the wife was not living with the husband in his house from 23-3-1979.

6. The true content and import of desertion in clause 1(b) of S.13 of the Hindu Marriage Act imparts a definite idea of complete and endless abandonment of one spouse by the other. This must be without the other's consent and without justifiable cause. Two essential conditions attached to the notion of desertion are: (1) the factus of separation and (2) the intention to bring marital life permanently to an end animus deserendi. Desertion is always a matter of inference to be drawn from the facts and circumstances of each case. There may be often cases whe