A spouse is entitled to a decree of divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion if the other spouse has treated them with cruelty or has deserted them for a period of two years or more without any justification.

1. - The instant misc. appeal is directed against the order dated 16.4.2014 passed by the learned District judge, Sirohi in Civil Misc. Application No. 146/2011 whereby the Trial Court allowed the application filed by the respondent under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act and dissolved the marriage between the appellant and the respondent.

2. Facts in brief are that the respondent wife filed an application under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act in the Court of the learned District Judge, Sirohi on 13.12.2011. As per the averments made in the application the respondent was married to the appellant husband at Abu Road on 14.2.1997 by Hindu rites and ceremonies. After the marriage, the spouses resided in the joint family of the appellant husband at Deedwana. A daughter was born from the wedlock in the year 2000. After some duration, the appellant husband started misbehaving with the respondent wife and also started assaulting her under the influence of liquor. He shifted to Ambaji Gujarat and started a business of garments and STD Booth. The spouses resided at Ambaji till 2004 but the misbehaviour of the appellant husband continued. The husband became indebted and to clear the debts, he sold off the wife's gold and silver ornaments in the year 2004. Ultimately, he deserted the respondent wife and the daughter and went back to Deedwana leaving her at her father's home at Abu Road with her daughter. Since then the respondent wife was residing at Abu Road. The marital ties between the spouses were never revived thereafter. It was averred in the petition that the appellant husband had deserted the respondent wife since the year 2004 and the continuance of the marital relations between the parties was not possible.

3. Upon receiving notice, the appellant husband appeared and filed a reply to the divorce petition. It was pleaded in the reply that the spouses were married at Deedwana. For a period of about three years from the marriage, the respondent wife's behaviour with the appellant husband was proper but thereafter she started misbehaving and pressurising the appellant husband to leave Deedwana and take up a business at Abu Road. She used to abuse the appellants parents. The appellant husband, in order to save the marital ties, sold his share of the joint family property and shifted to Ambaji, Gujarat and started business there. There, the respondent wife conducted herself properly for about three years but then her misbehaviour with the husband revived. She started pressurising the appellant husband to take up residence at Abu Road. She used to leave the home without any information and went to Abu Road without permission of the husband. The wife deserted him and went to live with her parents at Abu Road. In these harrowing circumstances, the appellant husband was left with no option but to wind up the business at Ambaji and returned back to Deedwana. It was claimed that the respondent wife had made the appellant husband's life a living hell. He was desirous of keeping her with him and to sustain the marital ties but the respondent wife was under the influence of her mother and instead of performing her wifely obligations, she deliberately deserted the husband. The allegation that he maltreated and assaulted the wife under the influence of liquor and demanded money was specifically denied. It was further submitted that the respondent wife continued to visit the appellant at Deedwana till 2010 and thus, the allegation of desertion was not tenable.

4. He also filed a counter claim under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act praying for restitution of conjugal rights. The respondent wife denied the allegations levelled in the counter claim. The learned District Judge on the basis of the pleadings of the parties framed the following issues:-

1. As to whether the appellant treated the wife with cruelty and if so, whether the wife was entitled to a decree of divorce on the basis of cruelty?

2. As to whether the husband had dese