Denial of intimacy and suspicion of affair is cruelty: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court upheld a family court’s decision granting divorce to a man, ruling that denial of intimacy and constant suspicion of an affair by his wife amounted to cruelty. The court found the marriage irreparably broken

Mumbai: Denial of physical relationship to husband and suspecting him of an extra-marital affair amounts to cruelty and is hence a ground for divorce, the Bombay High Court held while refusing relief to a woman challenging a family court’s divorce order.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale on Thursday said the woman’s conduct can be construed as “cruelty” against her husband. The court dismissed the woman’s petition challenging a family court order allowing the man’s plea for divorce.

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The woman had also sought direction to her husband to pay her a monthly maintenance of Rs 1 lakh. The couple got married in 2013, but started living separately in December 2014. In 2015, the man approached the family court in Pune seeking divorce on the grounds of cruelty, which was granted.

The woman, in her plea, stated that her in-laws had harassed her, but she still had love for her husband and hence, does not wish for the marriage to end. The man, however, claimed cruelty on several grounds, including denial of physical intimacy, suspecting him of having extra-marital affairs and causing mental agony by embarrassing him in front of his family, friends and employees.

He further claimed that his wife deserted him when she left his house and went to her parents’ home. “The appellant’s (woman) behaviour with the man’s employees is sure to cause agony to him. Similarly, humiliating the man in front of his friends is also cruelty to him,” the high court held.

It noted that the woman’s apathetic and indifferent behaviour with the man’s specially abled sister is also sure to cause pain to him and his family members, the court said. The court, while dismissing the woman’s plea, said the marriage between the couple is broken without any possibility of being mended.