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Showing contexts for: constructive desertion in Alias Sarbani Sarkar Mazumdar vs Sri Prabhat Majumdar Alias Pravat ... on 8 January, 2026Matching Fragments
3. Learned counsel for the appellant contends, by relying on a co-
ordinate Bench judgment in Kamalika Majumdar Nee Das v. Subhapriya Majumdar, reported at 2025 SCC OnLine Cal 4835, that divorce cannot be granted at the instance of the husband if the husband himself is guilty of constructive desertion. It is argued that in the present case, the respondent-husband himself deserted the appellant-wife and, thus, cannot take advantage of his own wrong. It is submitted that the husband has not come with clean hands before the Court.
17. The appellant/wife has relied on Kamalika Majumdar Nee Das (supra)3 for the argument that the respondent/husband was guilty of constructive desertion by his own acts, due to which no divorce decree ought to have been granted against the appellant-wife on the ground of desertion.
18. However, the facts of Kamalika Majumdar Nee Das (supra)3 are completely different from the present case. In the said judgment, it was observed that in view of the prior conduct of the husband,
19. In the present case, however, no such allegation against the husband has been pleaded or established at all. Thus, the argument of constructive desertion is a mere moonshine and not established by any cogent evidence. Moreover, such alleged constructive desertion was neither pleaded nor proved nor argued before the learned Trial Judge and cannot be permitted to be taken for the first time as an afterthought before this Court.
20. It is to be noted further that there is no evidence on record to establish that the wife had exhibited any animus revertendi at any time, let alone filing any suit for restitution of conjugal rights. This, coupled with the utter lack of evidence of any conduct or cruelty of the husband justifying the long absence of the wife for 2026:CHC-AS:24-DB almost a decade between the withdrawal of the second suit of the husband in 2007 and the institution of the current suit in the year 2017, clearly shows that the wife had deserted the respondent- husband without any rhyme or reason, which constitutes desertion as contemplated in Section 13(1)(ib) of the Hindu Marriage Act.