C A V Judgment

1. This is first appeal filed by the appellant/plaintiff under Section

19(1) of the Family Court Act against the judgment and decree dated 24-12-2021 (Annexure A/1) passed by the learned Family Judge, Raigarh, District Raigarh (CG) in Civil Suit No. 55-A/2021 by which the suit filed by the husband/plaintiff for declaring the marriage to be null and void, has been dismissed.

2. The parties are described as per their status before the Family Court. The Appellant/plaintiff has been described as husband and respondent/defendant has been described as wife in the suit before the learned Family Court.

3. Brief facts as reflected from the record are that the husband filed a civil suit mainly contending that;

A. He and his wife are Muslims and are governed by the Muslim Shariat and customs. The marriage between them was solemnized according to Muslim customs on 29/12/2007 at Madhuvanpara Bhanupratap Colony, Kaserpara, Raigarh District, Raigarh (CG). Further case of the husband is that as per Muslim law, marriage is a contract between two parties. It has been further contended that the wife was mentally deranged and insane even before the marriage, but this fact was concealed by the parents of the wife and the consent of the husband for the said contract was obtained fraudulently. It is also case of the husband that after the marriage, the wife who is mentally disturbed used to behave in a manner which would frighten the husband. She used to get angry suddenly, beat him, attempts to commit suicide by hanging herself from the fan, by attacking with a sharp weapon, etc. Despite this the husband used to perform his marital duties and from their wedlock twin daughters namely Arju Bano and Sana Bano aged 12 years respectively were born on 13/09/2008. The wife used to harass him by causing injuries to children and also assaulting them without understanding the welfare of herself and the children.

She used to behave with cruelty and inhumanly with the children.

B. It has also been contended that the husband who is in the textile business had to stay out of the house for his business purpose, but due to the mental disorder of the wife, the husband had to take care of the children causing difÏculty to run his business. It is also case of the husband that in the month of August, 2019, the wife became completely insane and suffered from chronic brain disorder. She started behaving in such abnormal manner which was extremely aggressive and seriously injurious to life of the husband and the daughters. The daughters at all times remained in fear because of untoward incident which may be caused by the wife.

C. Further case of the husband that he took the wife to Central Psychiatric Institute, Ranchi (Jharkhand) on 31/08/2019 for treatment where the wife was admitted on 02/09/2019 and her treatment continued till 05/11/2019 and she was alright after getting treatment, but despite the above, there is no change in her behaviour and started harassing the others and due to her fragmented mentality, she continued to commit dangerous acts and started doing acts with the intention of committing suicide or causing physical harm to the husband and her daughters, causing unpleasant incidents. She also started exposing her body parts in front of everyone which also started having a mental and adverse affect on the daughters of the husband and all of a sudden wife voluntarily left her matrimonial home on 06/11/2019 and was staying in her parental house. Therefore, he has filed a suit for declaring the marriage between them as null and void.

4. Learned Family Court issued notice to the wife for her appearance but she could not appear on 16-8-2021 due to Covid Pandemic. Therefore, learned Family has directed for publication of the notice in the newspaper and also by ordinary mode as well as by registered post. Accordingly, the notice was served on wife on 22-9- 2021 but she remained absent, therefore, the learned Family Court proceeded ex parte against the w