- (1.) Appellant Amrik Singh, a P.C.S. Officer (now an I.A.S. Officer) on 10th November, 1963 sought judicial separation from his wife Shrimati Surjit Kaur, whom he had married on 16th November, 1958, on the ground of mental and physical cruelty resulting from her misconduct towards him and his family members. The central core of his grievance against respondent wife, which runs like a thread through the specific instances of her misbehaviour that have been quoted in the petition, is that she was of haughty temperament, highly disrespectful towards him and his entire family members, would pick up quarrel with him on trifling matters and continue on taunting and nagging him and his father and other family members in his presence and had been making such serious allegations against him as that of being impotent both in front of her own parents as also the friends of the petitioner, that her false accusations, taunts and nagging, ill-behaviour full of contempt and disrespect in presence of even outsiders constantly distressed him and very adversely affected his health; and when it becomes impossible to put up with such misbehaviour and conduct, and continued living with her any further involved the risk of totally wrecking his health, mental and physical, he took recourse to the present proceedings in order to save himself from further agony and the consequent danger therefrom to his mental and physical health.
(2.) Though the petitioner has dealt in great details the specific instances of respondent-wife's misbehaviour yet a brief summary of some of the salient allegations would suffice and these can be narrated thus :- (1) Immediately after the marriage when respondent-wife returned to her parents, she falsely told them that by marrying to the petitioner her life had been ruined as he was impotent; that on return from her parental house in Tundla, District Agra, she did not let pass any occasion or opportunity without insulting him and his family members. (2) That in Ropar where he was posted for a brief period as a Judicial Magistrate, she one evening threw petitioner's turban on his shoes and then started laughing at the incident; that the said incident though being greatly provocative and insulting and inflicted on him great mental torture, even then he tried to keep peace and left the matters after making a protest. (3) That in May, 1959, petitioner had to leave for 15 days' training at Police Training School, Phillaur, and therefore, left the respondent at his parental house in Chandigarh, where at one night she designedly created a scene by falsely alleging that petitioner's younger brother Tarlochan Singh aged 16-17 years had tried to touch her hand around mid-night; that the very next morning her grand-father arrived with whom she left for his village on the pretext of staying there only for a day or two, but instead of returning to Chandigarh she left for Tundla, where her father is posted, without taking the consent of the petitioner or his family members; and that she did not return to the petitioner from there till April, 1960 despite many efforts having been made by petitioner and his parents to bring her back therefrom. (4) That during the aforesaid period of her absence when the petitioner was posted at Delhi, her father and uncle paid frequent visits to his house and held out threats against him if he did not snap his relations with his family. (5) That he was living in Darya Ganj, Ansari Road in Delhi in the months of May/June, 1960; petitioner's father a Superintendent in the office of the Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, Chandigarh, came to live with him in order to get treatment for his ailment of asthma. She did not like his stay in the house and declined to prepare meals for him. She tauntingly remarked as to what for he (petitioner's father) had married petitioner's mother; and why she should not be called to prepare meals for him. She stopped the sweeper to clean his room and servant to serve him. She passed taunts against petitioner's father in his presence. (6) That one evening in the month of May or June, 1960 he was sitting in the verandah when she created a fuss. She even threw the child on him and physically assaulted him, thus attracting his colleague-officers who were residing in the neighbourhood and who reprimanded her for behaving in the said manner. That incident created utmost distress in the petitioner's mind and almost wrecked his health. (7) That the petitioner was preparing for his P.E.L. examination, but the respondent-wife would not allow him to study and taunted that he was not going to get first division; that on this occasion also the respondent grappled with the petitioner. (8) That in April, 1961 he shifted to S.A.C. Flats at Rajpur Road, Delhi where the respondent's parents frequently visited his house and performed siapa and tried to defame him amongst the Officers living in the neighbourhood. They encouraged the respondent-wife to abuse him and become more disrespectful, insulting and insolent towards him. (9) That in July, 1962, petitioner was posted at Jagraon as Sub-Divisional Magistrate. From there he had to go to Chandigarh to pay a visit to his parents. He wanted to carry his son with him as his parents had wanted to see him. The respondent though at first declined to send the child with him, but later on agred. The petitioner thus took the child with him, but he had hardly reached Ludhiana and was yet to board the bus for Chandigarh from there, that the respondent accompanied by Gian Chand, his peon, reached the bus stand and created a scene there by forcibly trying to snatch the child from him. Eventually, petitioner had to give pay and part with the child and thereafter go alone to Chandigarh completely shaken and insulted. (10) That again in the month of July, 1962, when petitioner reached home at 7.30 p.m., he found the outside door of his house locked. He first severely knocked at the door and finding no response from inside the house and after waiting for some time for respondent, made naxious enquiries about her from the neighbours. Search for her in the neighbourhood and at the houses of friends proved of no avail. After a few hours Chowkidar informed him that the respondent was inside the house. After having put the petitioner to so much agony, the respondent remarked that she was simply making a fun of him. (11) That in the month of December, 1962, petitioner had to go to Chandigarh for 15 days' Civil Defence Training. The respondent refused to accompany him and preferred to stay behind at Jagraon along with the younger child and the servant. In his absence, she stayed for a night at the house of Arjan Singh, Advocate and the next morning the child was seen moving around near the railway crossing. The people of Jagraon carried a story to the Deputy Commissioner that petitioner's wife had stayed in a hotel, had taken drinks and became unconscious and was thus unable to take care of the child. The Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana, conducted secret enquiries into the matter. The aforesaid conduct of the respondent greatly humiliated the petitioner and lowered him in the eyes of his colleague-friends and the public. (12) That in March, 1963, he was transferred from Jagraon to Ambala. There too, the respondent continued to create ugly scenes. She would not only openly insult the petitioner in front of his guests but would also insult his guests as she did with Gurdial Singh Fiji, P.C.S., a colleague of the petitioner, who had come to stay with him for a day or two. So was also the case with H.S. Raju, P.C.S., Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Faridkot, brother-in-law of the petitioner. She also misbehaved with petitioner's father in his presence and the latter left his house in great anguish.
(3.) The respondent-wife in her reply refused the allegations of cruelty and depicted them as figments of petitioner husband's imagination. She has pleaded that she acted all through as a faithful and loyal wife to him. Narrating the marital history she stated that she lived in the company of the petitioner-husband at first up to 25th May, 1959; that from that day till 10th April, 1960 she stayed at her parental house; that they resumed joint cohabitation from 10th April, 1960 and continued to reside together till October 1963, and that in September, 1963, he was posted to Dharamsala and left her in hospital in Chandigarh for treatment of her suspected abortion, where she was eventually aborted on 11th October, 1963. Regarding incident No. (3), she maintained that for a few days, she was residing at the petitioners husband's parental house, his younger brother Tarlochan Singh, then a young lad of 16/17 years one night tried to misbehave with her, for which the petitioner's pitcher rebuked him and the petitioner also apologised to her and matter was closed. As to the incident No. (11), she stated that Shri Arjan Singh Advocate at Jagraon was friendly towards the petitioner-husband, that his association with the petitioner led to a hostile incident in Jagraon town, and that Shri Arjan Singh, Advocate, like the petitioner-husband, is also Nirankari. She held out Shri K.S. Raju brother-in-law, of the petitioner-husband, to be the villain of the pence & person who had instigated the petitioner to file the petition, for he was annoyed with her when she complained to the petitioner-husband regarding his misbehaviour towards her.;