ON

07.02.2023

AND

COMING

ON

FOR

PRONOUNCEMENT

OF

JUDGMENT

THIS

DAY,

T.G.SHIVASHANKARE

GOWDA,

J.,

DELIVERED

THE

FOLLOWING:

J U D G M E N T

This appeal is filed under Section 19(1) of the

Family Courts Act, 1984, by the respondent/wife

challenging

the

judgment

dated

21.12.2019

in

M.C.No.103/2015 on the file of the Family Court at

Gulbarga (‘the Trial Court’ in brevity), in allowing the

petition filed by the petitioner/husband under Section

13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

2.

The

appellant

is

respondent

and

the

respondent in the present case is the petitioner before

the Trial Court. For the sake of convenience, the

parties will be referred to as per their status before

the trial court.

3. Briefly stated the facts are, the petitioner and

the respondent are a couple, their marriage was

3

solemnized on 28.12.2013 at APMC Mangala Kalyana

Mantapa, Indi Road, Bijapur. After the marriage,

respondent/wife resided in the matrimonial home for

a period of 15 days happily. Thereafter, she started

behaving indifferently, quarreling with the petitioner

and his family members. She claimed that she was

not willing and interested in the alliance with him, it

was a forced marriage for her and she did not show

any interest in the marital life. Inspite of advice by

the elders, she did not heed to it and expressed that

she wants to put an end to her marital relationship

with the petitioner. She did not co-operate with him

even during the short stay, did not take care of his

aged parents and she had thrown hot water on the

mother-in-law. She started proclaiming openly that

the petitioner is impotent, she never allowed the

friends and relatives of the petitioner to visit the

matrimonial home and those who did come received

insults from her and she was making allegations that

4

the petitioner is having illicit relationship with another

woman. She did not allow the petitioner to have

intercourse on the first night. She told him that if he

forcibly tries to have sex with her, she will make a

hue and cry and create a scene. She put the

petitioner and his family members under fear and

forced him to give her divorce from the marriage in

which she was not interested. The respondent is a

short-tempered lady, she damaged a cell phone by

throwing it away and tore the marriage clothes of the

petitioner. Every day and night, she picked up

quarrels with the petitioner, threatening that she will

commit suicide if there is any force for intercourse.

At the time of marriage, petitioner was working at

Vadodara, Gujarat and because of the torture being

committed by the respondent, he lost his job. In the

month of February 2014, the respondent voluntarily

left the matrimonial home. In the month of March

2014, the petitioner along with the elders, visited the

5

parental home of the respondent, panchayat was held

and her parents tried to convince her, but she did not

heed to their advice. Contrarily, she threatened the

petitioner that he should not come to her parental

home again. Thereby the marriage between the

petitioner

and

the

respondent,

so

also

their

relationship, has broken down, hence the petitioner

has approached the trial court seeking dissolution of

marriage on the ground of cruelty.

4. The respondent contested the claim denying

the allegations made against her. She admits her

marriage with the petitioner. It is her case that 18

days after the marriage, the petitioner and his family

members started ill-treating her, insisting her to bring

the balance dowry of Rs.3,00,000/- agreed at the

time of engagement ceremony. The petitioner took

her to Vadodara, Gujarat where he was working as a

Mechanical Engineer. The sister of the petitioner

6

Smt.Sheela was also working at VTU Company in

Vadodara. Even at Vadodara, the petitioner had

persisted her for the balance dowry upon the

instigation by his sister Sheela and her husband

Sathish. The petitioner used to return home very

late, never spent time with the respondent, the sister

of t