SARETTHA Vs. VENKATA SUBBAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Civil Revision Petition is filed by Sareetha, a well-known film-actress of the South Indian screen, against an order passed by the learned Subordinate Judge, Cuddapah, overruling her objection raised to the entertaining of an application filed by one Venkata Subbaiah, under Section 9 of the HINDU MARRIAGE ACT, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') for restitution of conjugal rights with her.

(2.) Sareetha while studying in a high-school and then hardly aged about sixteen-years and staying with her parents at Madras, was alleged to have been given in marriage to said Venkata Subbaiah, at Tirupathi on 13-12-1975. Almost immediately thereafter, they were separated from each other and have been continuously living apart from each other for these five-years and more. Venkata Subbaiah had, therefore, filed under section 9 of the Act O.P.No. 1 of 1981 on the file of the Sub-Court, Cuddapah, for restitution of conjugal rights with Sareetha. Sareetha had taken a preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of the Cuddapah Sub-Court to the entertaining of that application. The contention of Sareetha was that the petition filed by Venkata Subbaiah itself showed lack of jurisdiction on the part of Cuddapah court to try the petition and that the Sub Court, Cuddapah, ought to have declined jurisdiction. The basis for this objection was an allegation contained in the husband's petition "that the marriage took place at Tirupathi and that the petitioner and respondent last resided together at Madras." Sareetha relied upon this statement of Venkata Subbaiah to say that the Cuddapah court had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition of Venkata Subbaiah. It was this preliminary objection taken by Sareetha that had been over-ruled by the Cuddapah Sub-Court, leading Sareetha to the filing of this Civil Revision Petition.

(3.) Venkata Subbaiah hails from Cuddapah where he owns a house and agricultural lands. Venkata Subbaiah stated in his petition for restitution of conjugal rights that after his marriage with Sareetha at Tirupathi in December, 1975, he and Sareetha went to Cuddapah and lived there together for six montns and that thereafter they went to Madras and stayed at Madras with the parents of Sareetha for some time. According to Venkata Subbaiah, their stay at Cuddapah for six months was immediately after their marriage at Tirupathi and that was the place where they last resided together within the meaning of the Act. The subsequent stay at Madras, according to Venkata Subbaiah, should not be regarded as the place where they last resided together. On the other hand, Sareetha contended that as she and Venkata Subbaiah had, on the statement of Venkata Subbaiah himself, last lived together at Madras, the Cuddapah court would have no jurisdiction to try the application of Venkata Subbaiah.