Modi, J.—This is a miscellaneous first appeal against an order of the learned District Judge, Jodhpur, dated the 2nd December, 1958, under sec. 39 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954, (No. XLIII of 1954) (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 1954) read with sec. 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure in a divorce matter.

2. The petitioner is the husband Chistopher Andrew Neelakantan. His case is that he is a citizen of India and is an officer in the Air Force of the Government of India, and has been holding the post of Wing Commander in the Air Force at Jodhpur for the past several years. It is further alleged that the petitioner and the respondent Mrs. Anne Neelakantan were married in England on the 20th February, 1955 and a copy of the certificate of marriage (Annexure I) is produced in support of this. Among other allegations, which it is unnecessary to mention at this stage, the petitioners case further was that when he wanted the respondent to come over to India and live as his wife, she flatly refused. Consequently, the petitioner made the present application in the court of the District Judge, Jodhpur, on the 1st May, 1958, in which he prayed for a decree for the dissolution of his

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