Ashok Kumar Jain vs Sumati Jain

3. The facts of the case are as follows:

4. The respondent, on the other hand, filed written statement in the Family Court and narrated a totally different set of facts. She alleged that since from first night, the appellant came deadly drunk into the room and abused her for bringing insufficient dowry. Subsequently, she was shocked to learn that the appellant was earlier married to a woman known as ‘Shanta’ and had a son from the said marriage. According to the respondent, the aforesaid fact relating to first marriage was not revealed by the appellant in the matrimonial advertisement given by him on 8th April, 1990 in the daily newspaper “Rajasthan Patrika”. When she inquired about his first marriage she realized that the appellant had sought divorce on the exact same grounds as are pleaded by him in the present case. The respondent further claimed that once when the appellant had lost Rs.3,000/- in gambling, he forced her to go to her parental place and to bring Rs.3,000/- for him. Moreover, when her father retired from the service and had received retiral benefits of Rs.1,20,934/-, the appellant pressurized her to convince her father to part with Rs.50,000/- for him. Whenever, she refused to talk to her father on this topic, the appellant assaulted her. She further alleged that despite the fact that she was a woman from a Jain community, the appellant would force her to cook meat or to drink with him. Since the respondent believed in non-violence according to her religious tenance, she could never convince herself to eat non-vegetarian food and to drink. The respondent further alleged that finally on 30th March, 1991, the appellant mercilessly bashed her up and threw her out of the matrimonial home. She had no option but to return to her parental place. According to the respondent, when she was hospitalized and required blood and even after the birth of her son, the appellant never visited the hospital to see her and the son and enquired about her welfare. Therefore, according to the respondent, in fact the cruelty and desertion have been committed by the appellant and not by her.

6. The Appellate Court, as noticed above, dismissed the appeal. The Appellate Court held that the appellant has not only been cruel to the respondent, but has also brought the situation to the point where the respondent had no option but to leave her matrimonial home. Hence the appellant has committed constructive desertion of the respondent.

11. The High Court perused the divorce petition as was filed by the appellant against his first wife as well as the divorce petition filed by the appellant against the present respondent and noticed that they are almost identical in their content. The same sets of allegations were levelled against the first wife as levelled against the present respondent. This clearly shows the modus operandi of the appellant. Taking into consideration the aforesaid fact and the fact that even during the pendency of the appeal the appellant came out with a fresh matrimonial advertisement, the High Court rightly held that the appellant played fraud with the respondent. The High Court noticed that surprisingly the subsequent matrimonial advertisement published by him clearly reveals his intention to re-marry for the third time even before getting divorce from his second wife. The High Court observed that this is against the Section 15 of the Act, whereunder it is stipulated that even after dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce, upto certain period no party to the marriage can marry again.

15. In the result and in absence of any merit, the appeal is dismissed but there shall be no separate orders as to costs.