SARDAR SURINDER SINGH Vs. MANJEET KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Two cross petitions i. e. one filed by Surrinder Singh, the appellant herein, under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriages Act, 1955, and the other by Manjeet Kaur, the respondent herein, were disposed of by District Judge, Jammu, by the consent of the parties, and a decree for judicial separation passed in favour of the respondent against the appellant. During the pendency of these proceedings, the respondent had also moved an application under Section 27 of the Act, seeking disposal of certain articles of moveable property, some of which, according to her, were her exclusive property, whereas the others were the joint property of the parties. She had annexed two lists to her application, out of which List A, which inter alia included gold ornaments, represented her exclusive property. The appellant in his objections had, however, contended that the entire property was the joint property of the parties, as it had been gifted away to both the spouses at or about the time of their marriage.

(2.) The learned District Judge, on agreement of the parties, had initially appointed one S. Avtar Singh Advocate as the Superdar of the said property, and the appellant had willingly undertaken to hand over to him the aforesaid property, which was admitted by him to be in his possession. Later on, he has fallen back upon his word and had challenged the aforesaid order in appeal before this Court. That appeal was heard and disposed of by me by my order dated 7-5-1979, the operative part whereof reads as under :-

(3.) Whereas Section 27 deals with the property belonging to the spouses, Section 26 deals with their children, and Section 25 with permanent alimony and maintenance that may be awarded in favour of a party. Power of the Court to pass an order under these sections is discretionary. The object behind the enactment of these sections appears to be to ensure a severance in possibly all respects between those spouses who, as the Court thinks, cannot live together. The framers of the Act intended that in their own interests, as well as in the interests of their children, every attempt should be made to settle all possible disputes between such spouses, and that too once for all, so that they do not have any opportunity to enter into fresh litigation with each other, on any account whatsoever. Keeping in view the aforesaid legislative intent and the plain language of Section 27, the following propositions clearly emerge :