Wife trying to put blame on husband for her suicide attempt amounts to cruelty, is ground for divorce: Delhi High Court

A wife attempting suicide and then trying to put the blame on her husband and in-laws is an act of extreme cruelty and a ground for divorce, the Delhi High Court observed recently. .A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna said that because of such conduct, the husband and his family would be under constant threat of being implicated in false cases.“Such conduct of the appellant in attempting suicide and then trying to put the blame on the husband and his family members is an act of extreme cruelty as the family remanded under constant threat of being implicated in false cases,” the Court observed..The Bench, therefore, rejected an appeal filed by a woman challenging the family court order granting her husband divorce on grounds of cruelty.The couple in this case had gotten married in the year 2007 and child was born of the wedlock. However, the husband alleged that the wife left the matrimonial home after only four months of marriage.It was stated that she filed a police complaint alleging that a huge amount of dowry was given and further exorbitant demands were being made by the parents of the husband.The Court was told that in December 2009, the wife also tried to commit suicide by consuming mosquito repellent liquid..After considering the allegations, the Bench noted that even though the wife had claimed that she was forced to write the suicide note, in her cross examination she admitted that her husband was not even home when she attempted to commit suicide.The Bench further noted that the wife had filed several complaints and that even though many such cases ended in acquittal, she kept filing appeals to ensure that he and his family members are put in jail.“The appellant, no doubt has a legal right to take recourse for the wrong that may have been committed but making unsubstantiated allegations of having been subjected to dowry demands or acts of cruelty by the respondent or his family members, and getting criminal trials initiated against the respondent are clearly acts of cruelty," the Court observed. .The Court ultimately concluded that in this case, during two years of their matrimonial life, the parties barely resided together for ten months and that even during that time, there were various acts of the cruelty, including the initiation of false complaints, civil and criminal litigation committed by the wife towards the husband.“We therefore, conclude that the learned Addl. Principal Judge, Family Court has rightly held that the respondent was subjected to cruelty by the appellant and granted divorce under Section 13 (1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act," the High Court held. .Advocates Kunal Rawat and Dolly Verma appeared for the appellant (wife).The respondent (husband) was represented through advocates Shayuk Kumar and Rohit Saroj..[Read Judgment]