Chhattisgarh High Court: In a first appeal referred to the Single Judge Bench comprising of Sharad Kumar Gupta, J., the impugned judgment and decree in regard to Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 was dismissed.
Appellant had filed a divorce petition under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 which was dismissed by the trial court without recording relevant evidence. The appellant claimed that his marriage was solemnized in the year 1992 in accordance with Hindu rites and rituals and for about 17 years ago the respondent had performed second marriage and the appellant himself had performed second marriage. Though the respondent stated that her marriage was not solemnized with the appellant and neither did she perform second marriage. Therefore, observing the said facts of the case, the trial court had dismissed the divorce petition, against which the appellant had preferred this appeal.
The High Court, after considering the facts and circumstances of the case, concluded that the trial court had failed in recording the evidence in proper perspective and the appellant’s evidence was unrebutted. Moreover, the Court also observed that, the trial court by not paying any heed to the provisions of Section 23(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 which talks about “making every endeavour to bring about reconciliation between the parties” and pronouncing their decision ex parte against the respondent due to non-appearance and not framing issues regarding the marriage and most importantly the pleadings in which the respondent states that she is married wife of the appellant under Section 24 of the Act, the High Court on the basis of this remitted the case to the trial court with directions to proceed with the suit in accordance of law and procedure. [Ramnarayan v. Gayatri, 2018 SCC OnLine chh 488, order dated 08-05-2018]
