B. Kemal Pasha, J.

A poor girl of 17 was, unfortunately, given in marriage, evidently without her consent, to the petitioner herein. The parties are Muslims. In fact, the contract of marriage was entered into by overlooking the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. The plight of the poor girl, after the marriage was horrible. She was tortured and harassed to the maximum. Admittedly, an amount of 1 lakh and gold ornaments weighing 30 sovereigns were obtained by the petitioner from the parents of the girl at the time of marriage. He has spent all the money and misappropriated the gold ornaments. Harassment continued. In the meant time, she became pregnant. In the seventh month of her pregnancy, she was thrown out of the matrimonial house. Her condition was serious and there was severe bleeding. The girl was taken to a hospital from where she was referred to the Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, where she had undergone treatment as inpatient. The petitioner, who was the husband, or any one of his relatives, did not care even to pay a visit to the hospital. Finally, she gave birth to a male child. In the mean time, the petitioner, who was in search of othe