The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ruled that when a mother tutors her child to speak against her own father, it is a serious matter and amounts to mental cruelty towards the father.
A division bench of Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vinay Saraf made the observation while granting divorce to a man whose wife had filed multiple criminal cases against him and his family, and stopped him from meeting their minor daughter.
The court noted that the couple’s daughter was born in 2014, but the father was denied access to her. He had to file a civil suit for custody. Even after the family court ordered the wife to let him meet the child, she refused.
The judges referred to earlier rulings by the Delhi High Court and Kerala High Court, which said that “parental alienation” — influencing a child against one parent — causes mental cruelty. In this case, the court said the wife had coached the child to speak against her father, which was deeply harmful.
The husband had first filed for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty and desertion in the district court. The Supreme Court later transferred the case to the Jabalpur family court, which dismissed his petition in 2020. He then appealed to the High Court.
The High Court found that the wife left the matrimonial home a few months after marriage and never returned. Mediation attempts failed, and both sides filed multiple cases against each other.
The judges said the marriage had “irretrievably broken down” and that granting divorce would relieve both parties from ongoing pain. They allowed the appeal and dissolved the marriage.
The court avoided commenting on the pending criminal cases to ensure a fair trial in those matters.
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