JUDGMENT:- In O.S. No.66 of 1956 on the file of the Court of the Principal Subordinate Judge of Nagarooil one Bhagavathyamma sued her husband Sivanandy for restitution of conjugal rights. The parties belong to Velar community governed by the Mitakshara school of Hindu law. The plaintiff alleged that she was married to the defendant on 13th Panguni 1119 M.E. according to Hindu shastraic rights. The plaintiff was a mere girl 13 years old at the time of the alleged marriage. She had not attained puberty at that time. The defendant was also a minor on the alleged date of marriage aged about 15 years or 16 years. According to the plaintiff after she attained the age the marriage was consummated and a nuptial ceremony was performed, and that she was living with the defendant in his house for about a month or so. It is alleged by the plaintiff that the defendant was not prepared to live with her and that therefore she had to live away from him in her parents house.

2. The defendant resisted the suit and contended that there was no valid marriage between him and the plaintiff though he was made to undergo a form of marriage without the prosper consent of his father or other elder m