Anantanarayanan, O.C.J.-

In this Reference by the learned District Judge of Tirunelveli under sections 10, 17 and 22 of the Indian Divorce Act (IV of 1869), the moot question is whether the plaintiff-petitioner (Ambujam G. Ammal) has established, on the facts, her claim for divorce. The plaint shows that the plaintiff-petitioner prayed for divorce, upon one of the grounds specified in the second part of section 10, viz.,“of adultery coupled with such cruelty as without adultery would have entitled her to a divorce a mensa et toro”.

In the plaint there is a long account given of the conduct of the respondent, (defendant) subsequent to his marriage, particularly in the form of dissolute living, physical violence towards the petitioner and her children seizure of her earnings, and imputations of unchastity. Broadly stated, the situation is the plaintiff was a student in the S.S.L.C. class when the defendant, then employed in Military Service, married her by a registered form on 12th February, 1951, the defendant sub sequently being converted to Christianity, the religion of the plaintiff. The plaint does contain averments, in some detail, of what would certainly amount to legal cruelty

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