The central legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for due deliberation in matrimonial cases and the elements of desertion, including the factum of physical separation and the animus deserendi.

1. A petition for dissolution of marriage under S.13 of the Hindu Marriage Act stands allowed by the order of the learned District Judge of Kozhikode by the judgment which is under appeal here. The appeal is at the instance of the wife who objected to the petition for divorce. We shall refer to the parties as they are arrayed in the petition for divorce. The petitioner, K. Kumaran, married the respondent P Indira Devi on 6-4-1975 and in that marriage they have a child On 1-9-1975, when the wife was pregnant, she is said to have left for her father's home along with the father but without getting the consent of the petitioner. She delivered a child there and thereafter the petitioner tried to take her back to his house but she refused. She instituted proceeding for maintenance before the Chief Judicial Magistrate as M. C. No. 108 of 1977 complaining that the husband was neglecting to maintain her and the child. When these proceedings came up, the petitioner offered to take his wife and the child with him and maintain them which offer was accepted by the respondent In furtherance of such offer the respondent accompanied the petitioner to the Calicut Pailway station in order to proceed from there by train to Parappanangadi, where the house of the husband was situate. The petitioner was accompanied by two other persons. At the Railway station four tickets were purchased and one ticket was given to the respondent and she was asked to wait in the Ladies Waiting room. The other three were in the platform, chatting According to the petitioner, after some time when he looked for his wife she was not seen in the waiting room and it was understood that she had been taken by her uncle in a taxi from the Waiting room. Her evidence shows that she went to Parappanangadi. According to her, before the train came she tried to find her husband but not finding him she went along with her uncle to Parappanangadi. From there she did not go to her husband's house as she was told that the reception in the husband's house would not be welcome. She is said to have gone to the police and made a complaint. Thereafter the husband filed the petition for divorce alleging that his wife had deserted him from 1-9-1975 and since there is desertion for more than two years the petition for divorce had to be allowed. The petition was filed on 22-3-1978. The learned District Judge found that he was inclined to believe the petitioner and and concluded that the respondent had gone home without the permission of the petitioner. He further found "that there was no absolute duty on the part of the petitioner to go and fetch her She could have gone to her marital home which she did not do". It is further found that it is the admitted case of both parties that before the Magistrate when the case M. C. 108 of 1977 came up, the petitioner expressed his preparedness to take the respondent and child to his house and maintain them, that this was accepted by the respondent and the petition was dismissed. After referring to the incident at the Calicut Railway station he seems to find that the version of the petitioner as to what happened was acceptable. Then without any further discussion the learned Judge simply finds that the case of the petitioner is true and not that of the respondent. On that basis he holds that the respondent had deserted the petitioner for the requisite period We must observe that the judgment is thoroughly unsatisfactory. The learned Judge has treated the matter very lightly and casually. He has not formulated the matters which had to be considered in a dispute of this nature nor has he entered findings thereon. In fact his mind has not been applied to the real controversy which he was called upon to decide. In matrimonial cases, the court is expected to evince considerable anxiety and it is only after due deliberation that a court should grant a divorce. We regret to see that there is absence of such due deliberation in this case.

2. Merely f