New Delhi, Apr 18: Seventeen years after Jatinderbir Singh's wife allegedly deserted him and the two later got divorced in a sessions court, the Supreme Court wants the couple to reunite.

A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi upheld a High Court's judgement quashing the sessions court's decision to order their divorce.

"We do not find any ground to interfere with the impugned order," the bench observed while referring to the judgement passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing the couple to resume their married life.

The apex court also dismissed Singh's plea that the marriage had broken irretrievably and any attempt at reconciliation would be futile.

The High Court on July 19, 2006 had quashed the order of the Additional Sessions Judge, who by an order dated August 16, 1999, passed a decree of divorce to the couple.

In his order the Additional Sessions Judge held that Singh's wife, Sukhwinder Kaur, had left his house in May 1991 and did not return thereafter.

"Thus, it has been abundantly proved on record that the respondent (Sukhwinder Kaur) deserted the petitioner for a continuous period of more than six years," the Judge observed while passing the divorce decree.

However, Kaur appealed in the High Court which set aside the divorce decree on the ground that there was no evidence to support the allegation that she had deserted her husband. The High Court took the view that though Kaur was willing to go back to her husband along with the couple's daughter, Singh had taken the stance that he was willing to die rather than take her back.

Hence, it quashed the divorce decree directing the couple to live together again.