A court cannot compel a party to undergo medical examination to ascertain the presence or extent of insanity, but it can draw an adverse inference or presumption against a party who refuses to submit to such examination.

1. Shrimati Shanti Devi was married to Ram Nath in 1962. In December 1967, a petition for the dissolution of this marriage under Sections 12 and 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 hereinafter called the Act, was made by the wife. The annulment of the marriage was claimed on the ground that the husband was impotent and also an idiot, and the ground for divorce was that he had been incurably of unsound mind for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition as given in Section 13(1)(iii) of the Act.

2. The husband contested this petition and denied the allegations made by the wife.

3. On the pleadings of the parties, issues were framed but the relevant issue, with which we are concerned in this revision petition, is issue No. 2, which says:-

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"Whether the respondent (husband) has been incurably of unsound mind for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the presentation of this petition".

4. It may be stated that the counsel appearing for the wife did not press the grounds for the annulment of the marriage under Section 12 of the Act before me. So the only question to be determined was whether the husband had been incurably of unsound mind for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition. The onus of proving this issue was obviously on the wife.

5. In order to prove this issue, she examined Dr. Raj Kumar, Deputy Medical Superintendent, Punjab Medical Hospital, Amritsar, as A. W. 1. on 11th December, 1970. In his evidence, the Doctor stated that he examined the husband from 7th August to 17th August, 1970 and he was admitted in the Mental Hospital, Amritsar, during that period. After examination, his view was that the husband was suffering from schizophrenia, a form of unsoundness of mind. He went on to say--"it is difficult to say at the moment whether the condition of the respondent (husband) could improve and he should become of sound mind. This can be said only after treatment in the hospital is tried. The treatment should at least be for a month or two. It is not possible for me to say whether his condition is incurable unless I try the statement. No treatment was tried during his 10 days stay in the hospital Schizophrenia has been found to be incurable in some cases........................... Schizophrenia is nor curable in all cases".

6. Sometime after the statement of the Doctor was recorded, the wife made an application to the Court that the husband be directed to undergo observation at the Mental Hospital, Amritsar. According to her, this was necessary in order to find out whether his unsoundness of mind was incurable or not.

7. This application was opposed by the husband and after hearing the parties, the learned Additional District Judge, who was trying the case dismissed the same. Against this order, the present revision petition has been filed by the wife.

8. In order to succeed, the wife has to establish that the husband had been incurably of unsound mind for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the presentation of her petition. It is plaint that the real evidence on this point would be that of a medical expert and it is presumably for that purpose that the Deputy Medical Superintendent, Punjab Mental Hospital, Amritsar, was examined by her. As mentioned above, the Doctor has stated that the husband is suffering from schizophrenia, which according to him, is a form of unsoundness of mind. Now whether this disease is incurable in the case of the respondent can also be proved by the Doctor and it was with that intention that he was asked as to whether this unsoundness of mind was curable or not and to that question his reply was that he could give an answer only after the husband had undergone treatment in the Mental Hospital under his care for a month or two. It was, therefore, that the wife then made an application that the resp