Wife calling husband impotent, discussing sexual life in open is cruelty: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court recently said that a wife openly humiliating husband by calling him ‘impotent’ and discussing their sexual life in presence of family members causes mental cruelty and can be a ground for divorce..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna held that a wife should respect the privacy of the husband and is expected to be more discreet.Such disclosures even to the family members are a source of humiliation, the Court underscored.“In the light of above discussion, we conclude that the to be openly humiliated and being called as impotent by his wife, in front of others and for the respondent [wife] to discuss their sexual life in the presence of family members, can only be termed as an act of humiliation causing mental cruelty to the appellant [husband],” the Court held..The Court made the observation while granting divorce to a man on grounds of cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act.It also set aside the Family Court order which refused to grant him divorce.The couple had gotten married in the year 2011.They were interested in expanding their family by having children but on account of medical limitations, no natural conception took place and they had to resort to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment. Despite having undergone this IVF procedure on two occasions, they were unable to beget a child, due to which matrimonial differences started surfacing in their life.The husband alleged that the wife insulted him in front of her parents and other family members by alleging that he was impotent. One such incident happened in the year 2011 on the festival of Dussehra..After considering the case, the Court noted that the complications in the parties’ lives arose because of the sterility of the husband, which in the lay language was being termed as ‘impotency’.The Court observed that the wife had also levelled allegations of dowry harassment but there was nothing to corroborate the allegations.“The only inference from the conduct of the respondent [wife] that can be inferred is that she detached herself from the appellant, on account of his incapacity and decided to leave him and snapped their matrimonial relationship. Such withdrawal of the respondent from the matrimonial relationship unilaterally without any reason or basis thereby depriving the appellant of conjugal bliss, since October 2013 till date, can only be inferred as an act of cruelty,” the Court said. It, therefore, set aside the family court order and granted divorce to the husband.“We, on the appreciation of the entire evidence as led by the parties, are compelled to conclude that the appellant had been subjected to cruelty. Accordingly, the impugned Judgment dated 28.07.2021 dismissing the Divorce Petition, is hereby set-aside and the divorce is granted to the appellant on the ground of cruelty under Section 13 (1) (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act,1955.”.Advocates Pratyush Chirantan, Santosh and Mandeep Singh appeared for the husband.The wife was represented through advocates Rupali Kapoor and KD Sharma..[Read Judgment]