Man gets divorce for harassment by wife
A Subramani, TNN Jun 2, 2012, 03.52AM IST
CHENNAI: Distress and social humiliation heaped on a husband by his wife by filing a false complaint and getting him arrested would amount to cruelty, which is a valid ground for divorce, the Madras high court has said.
A division bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M Venugopal, passing orders on an appeal filed by a man, said: "The mental cruelty will continue to hurt a person throughout and any amount of healing words or healing touch would not wipe out the tears/scars, which continue to cause hurt and prick one's life."
The man had filed a divorce plea in the family court on the ground that his wife quarrelled with him and his family members for trivial matters and frequently threatened to commit suicide unless he agreed to separate from the joint family. His petition said she later lodged a complaint of dowry harassment and ill-treatment against him and six of his family members. He was arrested and put behind the bars for 22 days. When he applied for bail, she opposed it. She also alleged that they attempted to kill her .
The case, however, ended in the acquittal of the man and his family members after she informed the court that she intended to live with her husband and would not press charges against him.
However, when his divorce plea was taken up for hearing, she filed a separate petition seeking restitution of conjugal rights. In April 2008, the family court dismissed his plea and refused to grant divorce. He then approached the high court.
The bench said filing of a criminal case, the man's detention in judicial custody for 22 days and his acquittal by the criminal court "clearly constituted mental cruelty meted out to him, who admittedly would have undergone a traumatic experience and humiliation in the social circle. All these acts would clearly fall within the ambit and purview of 'cruelty'," the bench concluded, adding that the husband was entitled to the relief of divorce.
A division bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M Venugopal, passing orders on an appeal filed by a man, said: "The mental cruelty will continue to hurt a person throughout and any amount of healing words or healing touch would not wipe out the tears/scars, which continue to cause hurt and prick one's life."
The man had filed a divorce plea in the family court on the ground that his wife quarrelled with him and his family members for trivial matters and frequently threatened to commit suicide unless he agreed to separate from the joint family. His petition said she later lodged a complaint of dowry harassment and ill-treatment against him and six of his family members. He was arrested and put behind the bars for 22 days. When he applied for bail, she opposed it. She also alleged that they attempted to kill her .
The case, however, ended in the acquittal of the man and his family members after she informed the court that she intended to live with her husband and would not press charges against him.
However, when his divorce plea was taken up for hearing, she filed a separate petition seeking restitution of conjugal rights. In April 2008, the family court dismissed his plea and refused to grant divorce. He then approached the high court.
The bench said filing of a criminal case, the man's detention in judicial custody for 22 days and his acquittal by the criminal court "clearly constituted mental cruelty meted out to him, who admittedly would have undergone a traumatic experience and humiliation in the social circle. All these acts would clearly fall within the ambit and purview of 'cruelty'," the bench concluded, adding that the husband was entitled to the relief of divorce.
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