New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The bullets of unjustified accusations cause wounds that make it impossible for spouses to live together, and the “rabbit hole” of criminal litigation pushes them toward the point of no return, the Delhi High court has said while granting divorce to a man on grounds of cruelty by wife.
The court, while granting divorce, said false complaints of dowry and harassment by the wife, which dragged the husband and his family into the “loop of endless criminal litigations”, were sufficient to conclude mental, emotional and physical cruelty to him.
“Though the aggrieved person is entitled and well within their rights to avail the remedy under laws, but, crossing the point of ‘no return’ becomes inevitable once the spouses get engulfed in this rabbit hole of criminal litigations. The bullets of unjustified accusations and complaints cause such fatal wounds, leading to unendurable mental and physical acrimony, making it impossible for the spouses to live together,” said the bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait in a recent order.
“Making such unsubstantiated allegations of dowry harassment which are palpably not made out from the family circumstances of the parties is nothing but an act of mental trauma and cruelty,” the bench, also comprising Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, held.
The husband, an army officer, alleged the continuous harassment, bickering and inapt behaviour of his wife, also an army officer, ruined his peace of mind, career prospects, health as well as wealth.
He claimed that the wife used to frequently abuse him physically and even financially.
He approached the high court in appeal against a judgement of the family court refusing to grant him divorce.
The court said the wife’s effort to buy a house, for which she sought the support of her husband, cannot be considered as greed or an unjust demand or an act of cruelty.
However, the court added, there was overwhelming evidence to establish that disgruntled by her failed marriage due to lack of adjustment between the parties and their respective families, the wife resorted to making allegations and complaints only to bring the husband to his knees and to ruin his career.
The court noted that the parties were living separately since 2010 and there was not even an iota of evidence to show any attempt at reconciliation.
“Rather, the testimony of the appellant (husband) shows that having separated from each other, the respondent (wife) made various complaints to the police. For a couple to be deprived of each other’s company, proves that the marriage cannot survive, and such deprivation of one spouse of conjugal relationship by the other spouse, is an act of extreme cruelty,” the court said.
“We thus, conclude that the evidence on record proved that there is no chance of reconciliation between the parties and such long separation peppered with false allegations, police reports and criminal complaints can only be termed as mental cruelty. This dead relationship has become infested with acrimony, irreconcilable differences and protracted litigations; any insistence to continue this relationship would only be perpetuating further cruelty upon both the parties,” the court concluded. PTI ADS ADS SK SK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.