1. Husband has filed this appeal under S. 28 of the Hindu Marriage Act (in short, the Act) against the judgment and decree dated July 23, 1992, whereby a decree of divorce is granted in favour of respondentwife on the grounds of cruelty and desertion.

2. Admitted facts of the case are that the parties were married on August 13, 1988, at Jalandhar according to Hindu rites. Thereafter, they lived together at Fatehabad, Tehsil Tarn Taran, District Amritsar. In this wedlock respondent gave birth to a female child on May 2, 1989.

3. In the divorce petition, respondentwife pleaded that soon after the marriage, appellant-husband threatened her with cruelty. She was tortured time and again by him and his parents on the count that her parents have not given sufficient dowry at the time of marriage. Appellant-husband was addicted to vices and being intoxicated, he used to give her merciless beatings and abuse her. She was also threatened that she would be eliminated. She was not allowed to use her dowry articles and gold ornaments, which were kept by her husband and in-laws. Thus, these cruel acts of the husband and his family members caused mental agony to her. She averred that unde