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4. The point therefore arises whether the matter arising under the Indian Divorce Act 1869 the District Court could pass a decree for divorce, subject to confirmation of the High Court, at the instance of the wife merely because there has not been resumption of cohabitation for more than two years after the husband obtained adecree for judicial separation?

5. As the parties were unrepresented we requested Sri C. Sadasiva Reddy to assist the Court as amicus curiae.

6. It will be noticed that under the Indian Divorce Act 1869 the grounds for divorce at the instance of the wife are not the same as the grounds for divorce at the instance of the husband. Section 10 of the Act which deals with the question of dissolution of marriage states that a husband may obtain divorce on the ground that the wife has been guilty of adultery. So far as the wife is concerned, the section says that she may seek divorce on the ground that the husband has exchanged his profession of Christianity for the profession of some other religion and had gone through a form of marriage with another woman, or has been guilty of incestuous adultery, or bigamy with adultery, or of marriage with another woman with adultery, or of rape, sodomy or beastiality, or of adultery coupled with such cruelty as without adultery would have entitled her to a divorce a mense et toro; or of adultery coupled with desertion, without reasonable cause for two years or upwards. The abovesaid provision shows that in case the wife seeks for dissolution she has necessarily to prove adultery under the verious clauses of Section 10 except in regard to the clause relating to change of religion by the husband. In case the abovesaid grounds are proved the Court has power, under Sec. 14, the promounce for dissolution of the marriage subject to confirmation of the High Court.