BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA. J. - (1.) Thisfirst appeal is at the instance of a wife in a suit for divorce filed by the husband and is directed against the judgment and decree dated 8th December, 1994 passed by the Additional District Judge, 11th Court, Alipore in Matrimonial Suit No. 12 of 1993 thereby passing a decree for divorce on the ground of cruelty.
(2.) The husband filed an application for divorce under Section 27(i)(d) of the Special Marriage Act thereby praying for divorce on the sole ground of cruelty and the case made out by the respondent may be precised thus: (a) The parties were married according to the Special Marriage Act and subsequently, a social marriage was solemnised on 21st February, 1985 at 8, Ram Mohan Roy Road, Calcutta-700 009, the ancestral house of the husband. (b) The husband was initially an employee of the United Industrial Bank but the said Bank having been merged with the Allahabad Bank, at the time of institution of the proceedings the husband was an employee of the Allahabad Bank. The wife, prior to her marriage, was an instructress in a physical training Institute and the marriage was an outcome of love affairs between the parties. (c) The parties started their matrimonial life at 8, Ram Mohan Roy Road, Calcutta and from the very beginning, the wife demanded separate living from the parents of the husband and the members of his family. The husband tried to persuade the wife not to make unreasonable demand as he had some duty towards his parents and his brother and sister, he being the only earning member of the family. (d) The conduct of the wife and her attitude was unbecoming of a married Hindu middle-class wife and she very often expressed her bad taste. She was vulgar in her languages and rough and indecent in her behaviour. The wife humiliated and used to debase the husband, his parents, sisters, brothers and brother-in-law and even inflicted physical torture upon the husband. The following instances were referred to in the petition for divorce which according to the husband amounted to cruel torture :- (i) Since the night of Fulsajya, the wife expressed her desire of living separately with the husband from the parents and bother and sisters of the husband and insisted on leaving the ancestral house of the husband and any objection or persuasion from the side of the husband turned the wife violent and she abused the husband with filthy language. (ii) The husband purchased a plot of land in the village of South Garia from his relative in the year 1984 before marriage on the advice of his father after taking loan from his Bank and constructed a one storeyed building on the active supervision of his father which consisted of three rooms, kitchen, bath, privy and verandah during 1984-1986. The father and the brother of the husband gave hard labour during the construction of the house and as the husband was then posted at Haroa Branch and lived there in the manager's quarter he could not look after the construction of the building. The wife had very much greed for the money and whenever the father of the petitioner asked for the money for construction of the house kept by the husband with the wife, she used to pass very caustic and dirty remarks towards her father-in-law. (iii) The wife did not perform any household duties during her stay with the parents and she would flare up when the husband tried to persuade her to do household works. (iv) Whenever the husband used to meet his old friends and associates, the wife abused him in very dirty languages and washed off vermilion mark from her forehead and left the matrimonial house for her father's house and sometime to unknown destination and after 10/12 days she used to come back of her own. One day in the month of August, 1985, the husband after returning from office went to the local club to meet one of his old friends when his brother rushed to the club and asked him to go back home at once as the respondent started nuisance in the house and quarrelling with his father.
(3.) The husband immediately came back and found that the wife was quarrelling with his father and was abusing him in very filthy language. When the husband intervened in the matter, he was subjected to inhuman physical and mental torture by the wife and thereafter, she left the matrimonial house. The husband had to join her to avoid conflict and to maintain harmony. Thereafter, they lived for some months in the house of the wife's mother's sister at Belgharia as licensee on payment of licence fees up to March, 1986. In that house, the wife used to take entire salary of the husband from him and any objection on the side of the husband made the wife violent. The husband was required to beg money from the wife for his daily pocket-expenses. (v) Subsequently, the parties started living at the Manager's quarter at Haroa where the husband was then posted. During their stay at the said quarter at Haroa, the wife picked up quarrel with the neighbours which caused serious humiliation of the husband and as a result, he had to shift his residence from Haroa to Baguihati in May, 1987. During that time the construction of the house of the husband at South Garia was completed and the husband asked the wife to live at the said house but she did not agree on the plea that she was not habituated to live in village. The husband was then compelled to hire a two-room rented accommodation at Baguihati in May, 1987 at a monthly rental of Rs. 500/- and the wife brought her parents in the said house for living with them in spite of unwillingness of the husband and in that situation, the parties used to live along with a grown-up maid servant in one room and the other room was occupied by the parents of the wife. One day the eldest sister of the wife, who used to reside in a nearby place insulted the husband at the instigation of the wife for no fault on his part in the presence of the neighbours. In the said house the wife picked up quarrel with the landlord without any reason, as a result, the neighbours along with the landlord protested and the husband had to suffer humiliation because of such conduct of the appellant. (vi) The wife made the husband isolated and separated from his parents, brother, sisters, relations and friends and insulted the parents of the husband without any reason when they came to pass some days with them in their newly-built house at South Garia and drove them out of the residence. (vii) The wife brought her father, mother and physically handicapped sister and the married brother along with the newly married wife in his South Garia-residence to live there and they lived in the same mess at the expenses of the husband and thus, drained out the entire income of the husband and for that the husband had to take loan from private sources to meet the family expenses. (vii) The wife grew intimacy with some local people of questionable character and in the year 1989 she went away with one Mantu Aditya, a person of questionable character in spite of the protest of the husband. Subsequently, the said Mantu Aditya attempted to outrage the modesty of their maidservant. (ix) During the Durga Puja of 1991, the husband's newly-married younger sister and her husband went to the South Garia-residence to give them costly wearing apparels as Puja-gifts but the wife became angry for no reason and insulted them when they offered her the Puja-Gifts. (x) The wife was very suspicious and any delay on the part of the respondent in returning home from the office would make her suspicious towards the husband and she would pass scathing remarks and use abusive languages alleging imaginary relation of the husband with unknown ladies. (xi) The respondent is a sterile lady. She had no capacity to give birth of any child and she brought some Tantriks in their bedroom with an object to have child with the aid of tantra and any objection from the side of the husband would turn her violent. On 3rd October, 1992 the wife brought an unknown so-called Tantrik in the South Garia- residence and started mixing with him in very indecent objectionable manner and the husband having raised objection, he was physically assaulted with kicks, blows and was abused in vulgar languages in presence of the said Tantrik and the aforesaid incident compelled the husband to leave his own house on 9th October, 1992 and since then the husband was living with his parents. (xii) The wife had been coming to the Bank where the husband was then posted as a responsible officer very often and had been humiliating the husband in the office in presence of colleagues and customers and thus, lowered down his prestige.;