S.S. Sodhi, J. - (1.) The challenge here is by the wife to the decree for restitution of conjugal rights granted against her to her husband - Vir Bhan under Sec. 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The marriage between the parties, Santosh and Vir Bhan took place on March 12, 1980. Two sons were born to them. According to the husband, they have been living apart since Sept. 17, 1983, when in his absence, his father-in-law came to his house and took away his wife on the pretext that her mother was ill and they also had to see a girl for matrimony with his wife's brother. It is alleged that she did not come back to him despite the efforts made by him to get her back.
(2.) The version of the wife, on the other hand, was that in Nov., 1983, when she was two-months Pregnant her husband gave her a beating and turned her out of the house and since then she has been living with her parents and her husband has not cared for her or her children and had never sent her any maintenance either.
(3.) It has come on record that on July 17, 1984, the wife - Santosh had filed a petition under Sec. 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, in the court of the Judicial Magistrate at Hissar claiming maintenance from her husband, while the husband's petition under Sec. 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, was filed much later on March 23, 1985. The plea put-forth by the wife being that this petition has been filed as a counter-blast to her claim for maintenance. The effort on the part of the husband, in this case, being to show that he had filed the petition for restitution of conjugal rights without any knowledge of the petition for maintenance filed against him in the court at Hissar.;