The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently ruled that a wife attempting to destroy her husband’s career and reputation by filing complaints with his superiors amounts to mental cruelty. This act provides valid grounds for divorce.
The ruling came from a Bench comprising Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma, while hearing a divorce petition filed by an Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel. The husband claimed cruelty and desertion in his petition.
The case originated when the appellant-husband sought to overturn a 2013 judgment by the Rohtak District Judge, which dismissed his divorce plea under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
The husband stated that his wife had abandoned him in April 2002 and had not returned to their matrimonial home since. He alleged that she neglected her marital duties and subjected him to physical and mental cruelty.
The husband initiated divorce proceedings in 2006, but the couple later reached a settlement. The wife had agreed to withdraw her complaints to Air Force authorities and her maintenance application. However, despite the agreement, she failed to withdraw her complaint and did not rejoin him.
In 2010, she filed a police case against the husband and his parents under Sections 498-A (cruelty), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 313 (causing miscarriage without consent), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. While the investigation found his parents innocent, the husband faced trial for over four years before being acquitted as the allegations were proven false.
The husband then approached the Family Court for a divorce, citing cruelty and desertion. However, the Family Court dismissed his plea, accepting the wife’s argument that she had neither deserted him nor subjected him to cruelty.
The High Court, after reviewing the case, found that the wife’s persistent efforts to harm her husband’s career and reputation constituted mental cruelty. As a result, the Court granted the husband a divorce.
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