If a wife refuses to have a physical relationship with her husband, accuses him of having an extra-marital affair and insults him in front of his friends, does it amount to cruelty towards the husband? Yes, said the Bombay High Court on Thursday.
According to Live Law, a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale noted that the wife insulting the husband in front of his friends and ill-treating his employees will cause “mental agony” to the husband.
The judges reportedly held that: “The husband is a part of his family’s business. The unrebutted evidence pertaining to the wife’s behaviour with his employees is sure to cause agony to him.”
“Similarly, humiliating him in front of his friends is also ‘cruelty’ to him. Moreover, apathetic and indifferent behaviour with his specially abled sister is also sure to cause pain to him and his family members,” the judge said.
The court further observed that refusal to have a physical relationship and making allegations of extra-marital relations is also cruelty by the wife.
What’s the case?
The bench was hearing an appeal filed by a wife challenging a November 28, 2019 judgment passed by a Family Court in Pune, by which the court granted a decree of divorce on a plea filed by the husband. The court had also dismissed the plea by the wife, who had sought restitution of conjugal rights.
The couple had married on December 12, 2013 and got separated within a year — on December 14, 2014.
In April 2015, the parties filed a mutual consent divorce. However, in July 2015, the wife alleged that she was forced to file the said plea and therefore withdrew her consent.
She subsequently lodged a complaint with the local police against her husband and his family members.
According to Live Law, the husband accused the wife of subjecting him to cruelty by “humiliating him in front of his friends, barging into his office and speaking rudely with his employees, refusing to maintain physical relations for the first four months of their marriage, calling their anniversary day as the day of her failure etc.”
The judges noted that the husband even tried to save the marriage by leaving his family house and living in a rented flat along with the wife but she did not turn up.
What the court said
The Bombay High Court judge said, “The marriage has broken without any possibility of being mended is quite clear even from the fact of the parties filing a mutual consent divorce petition as early as in 2015.”
“It is also an admitted fact that the husband made an attempt to work on their relationship by moving out of his family home to a rented flat. He invited the wife to live there and gave her the key to the said flat. Despite this, she did not show up at the new flat. This evidence of the husband is also unchallenged, further refuting the assertion of the wife regarding him deserting her,” the judge noted.
In their order, the bench described the case as an “unfortunate” one, where, despite the parties undergoing mediation innumerable times, the matter was not resolved.
The judges noted that even the coordinate benches, which heard the case before, tried to help the parties but there was no positive outcome of the same.
The bench upheld the Family Court judgment and dismissed the wife’s appeal.
The judge said, “For more than a decade, the parties have been living separately. The marriage does not survive any longer and the relationship is terminated and confirmed as such legally as well, by the Family Court. This appeal simply continues the status quo awaiting an order of this Court.”