1. The respondent/husband filed O.P.No.48 of 1982 on the file of the learned VI Assistant Judge, City Civil Court, Madras, seeking a decree for divorce under Section 13(l)(i-a) and 13(l)(i-b) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 as amended by Act 68 of 1976. According to the respondent, as stated in the petition, the marriage between the petitioner and the respondent took place on 12. 1976 at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and they had been living together as husband and wife at No.99 Thyappa Mudali Street, G.T., Madras-1 till 20.3.1978, on which date the wife left the matrimonial home with the intention to desert the husband. A female child was born to the appellant through the respondent on 18. 1977. Ever since the date of marriage the wife did not want to live with the husband and she frequently went away to her parents house during the period of her living with him and she treated the husband with contempt and developed a dislike and aversion towards him. The petitioner has further stated in the petition, with respect to cruelty, that the respondent practiced mental cruelty on him on several occasions in 1977 and 1978 till 20.3.1978, during her stay with him, by systematically im