Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 — Section 13(1)(ia) — Divorce

July 11th, 2013

Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 — Section 13(1)(ia) — Divorce — Cruelty towards husband and his family members — Torture created by wife badly affected on private and public life of husband, entitlement — Husband’s petition for divorce under Section 13(1)(ia) was dismissed by trial court as well as by High Court despite finding of marriage having been irretrievably broken — Held, factual matrix would reveal that the husband comes from a respectable family engaged in his own business — Conduct of wife and circumstances made it graphically clear that the respondent-wife had really humiliated him and caused mental cruelty — Her conduct clearly exposits that it has resulted in causing agony and anguish in the mind of the husband — Feeling of deep anguish, disappointment, agony and frustration of the husband are obvious — It can be stated with certitude that the cumulative effect of the evidence brought on record clearly establishes a sustained attitude of causing humiliation and calculated torture on the part of the wife to make the life of the husband miserable — The husband felt humiliated both in private and public life — Indubitably, it created a dent in his reputation — Thus analysed, it is abundantly clear that with this mental pain, agony and suffering, the husband cannot be asked to put up with the conduct of the wife and to continue to live with her — Therefore, judgments and decrees of the courts below are set aside and a decree for divorce in favour of the appellant is granted — Consequently, appeal is allowed.

Suman Kapur v. Sudhir Kapur, AIR 2009 SC 589 & N.G. Dastane v. S. Dastane, (1975) 3 SCR 967, referred.

(Para 32, 33, 34, 35, 38 & 40)

Vishwanath Sitaram Agrawal v. Sau. Sarla Vishwanath Agrawal[Bench Strength 2], Civil Appeal No. 4905/2012 (Arising out of S.L.P. (Civil) No. 16528/2007)(04/07/2012), 2012(4) SCV(Civil) 533: 2012 AIR(SC) 2586: 2012(7) SCC 288: 2012(6) JT 62: 2012(4) Supreme 216: 2012(5) SLT 230 [Deepak Verma, J.: Dipak Misra, J.]

Entry Filed under: Matrimonial Laws