The Delhi High Court has held that a wife's acts of cruelty towards her husband cannot be condoned by taking into account her pregnancy.
The Division Bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal and Justice Renu Bhatnagar said that the occurrence of a pregnancy or temporary reconciliation cannot erase antecedent acts of cruelty.
“The occurrence of pregnancy or temporary reconciliation cannot erase antecedent acts of cruelty, particularly when the record demonstrates that the Respondent’s abusive conduct, threats, and denial of cohabitation persisted thereafter. Cruelty must be judged from the entirety of the circumstances and not from isolated episodes of reconciliation,” the Court stated.
The Court made the observations while overturning a family court's decision and granting a divorce to a husband.
It was stated that the couple had gotten married in the year 2016. The husband filed for divorce in 2021 on the grounds of mental cruelty. The wife alleged that she was subject to dowry-related harassment and ouster from the matrimonial home.
The family court rejected the divorce plea on the ground that the husband did not sufficiently rebut the dowry harassment allegations and that the wife's miscarriage in early 2019 showed that the couple were in a harmonious relationship.
The High Court reversed the lower court's decision and held that the family court’s observation of a harmonious relationship between the parties based solely on the miscarriage of the wife was wrong.
It observed that dissolution of marriage is not a triumph of one spouse over the other but a legal recognition that the relationship has reached a point of no return.
“Matrimonial litigation often leaves behind deep emotional scars. The dissolution of marriage is not a triumph of one over the other, but a legal recognition that the relationship has reached a point of no return. Both parties are urged to maintain civility in all future interactions, particularly in the event of any pending or future proceedings concerning maintenance or other ancillary reliefs,” the Court stated.
Further, the Court noted that the wife had accused her father-in-law of molesting her and levelling such an allegation of molestation against her husband’s father extinguishes the possibility of restoring matrimonial harmony, the Court observed.
The Bench added that the wife’s repeated humiliation and insults to the husband and his mother, persistent threats of self-harm, refusal to cohabit, and desertion without reasonable cause, satisfied the test of mental cruelty.
Thus, the Court concluded that the marriage between the parties had irretrievably broken down and proceeded to dissolve the marriage.
Advocates SD Dikshit and Anu Tyagi appeared for the husband.
[Read Judgment]