A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, consisting of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, held that certain types of “pressurising conduct” by a wife to sever her husband’s ties with his family amount to cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, and can therefore constitute a valid ground for dissolving the marriage. The decision was rendered in an appeal by a wife challenging a Family Court order that had granted divorce on the ground of cruelty by her.
The facts before the High Court established that the wife had consistently asserted her unwillingness to live in a joint family setting. She repeatedly pressured her husband to partition the family property and to live separately from his widowed mother and divorced sister. The husband testified, supported by corroborative evidence, that these demands were ongoing and part of a sustained pattern of conduct. In particular, the wife had publicly berated him at his workplace in front of his colleagues and superiors, accusing him of neglecting her and failing to prioritize her happiness. On one occasion, in May 2009, when he refused her demand for separation, she humiliated him publicly at his place of work.
Moreover, the wife filed multiple police complaints against her husband and his family members, and issued repeated threats, contributing further to the state of mental distress. The Bench observed that her conduct went beyond what could be described as normal strains of married life, and it had a substantial adverse effect on the husband’s mental well-being and dignity. The Court noted that the cumulative effect of public humiliation, verbal abuse, threat-making and attempts to alienate him from his family constituted mental cruelty of such intensity that it was unreasonable to expect the husband to continue to endure it.
The Court emphasized that cruelty in matrimonial law is not confined merely to physical violence. Acts that amount to emotional or psychological suffering, especially those that degrade, humiliate, or intimidate, can also form valid grounds for divorce. The Bench held that repeated threats and the filing of false or exaggerated police complaints, when part of a pattern, are relevant indicia of cruelty.
On application of these legal principles to the evidence, the High Court concluded that the husband had established cruelty of a severity sufficient to justify a decree of divorce. The wife’s appeal was therefore dismissed, and the marriage was held to be dissolved on the ground of cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act.
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