By the Court.—Marriages-be it for love or arranged—are demanding as well as fragile institution. It takes patience, effort, and faith to preserve them. Yet, they do fail. And if that happens then ‘are the defaulters entitled to take advantage of their own fault in divorce proceeding’—is the main question involved in this appeal.

THE FACTS

2. Dr. Tara Charan Agarwal (the Appellant) and Smt. Dr. Veena Agarwal (the Respondent) are allopathic doctors. They knew each others from the school days. They went to the same medical college, fell in love, and married on 17.1.1967, while completing their studies.

3. A son was born to them in June, 1970 but he died young within a few of days of his birth. A daughter was born on 21.12.1971. At present, she is married.

4. The Respondent was operated twice in 1973 and 1984 before the proceeding started and for the third time in 1988 during the proceeding.

5. Initially, the relations between the parties were happy. However, they started deteriorating after second operation, when the Respondent came to know about a letter (paper 39-Ka) said to be written by the Appellant to Shashi, the younger sister of the Respondent.

6. The relations came to an en