Keywords: accusing, husband, illicit, relationship, cruelty
The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled [Deepak Verma vs. Rashmi Verma] that if a wife claims an unlawful relationship between her husband and his mother, that would constitute mental cruelty and entitle him to divorce.
A division bench of Justices Goutam Bhaduri and Sanjay Agrawal overturned a March 2020 decision by a family court in Durg that dismissed the appellant-husband’s request for divorce.
The High Court took notice of the wife’s claims that her husband and his mother were having an extramarital affair and that her father-in-law had a sour feeling towards her.
According to the bench, the wife “assassinated” her own mother-in-law’s reputation by making such a claim, and this fact cannot be discounted by claiming that the accusation was made on the fly of the moment.
The nature of such statement destroys the reputation and value of the husband and wife in the eyes of each other and it cannot be said to be a normal wear and tear or isolated incident. When the wife affirms her statement made in the different forums wherein the sacred relation of mother & son is being attacked by such accusation certainly it would lead to mental cruelty,” the Court held.
To give you some history, the couple wed on November 5, 2011, and they later moved to Durgapur in West Bengal. The husband, however, claimed that following the wedding, the wife’s demeanour towards him was unfriendly and that she frequently abused him and his mother. Additionally, he claimed that his wife frequently skipped dinner preparation, leaving him with no choice but to go hungry or eat at a motel.
Furthermore, it was said that the husband used to intimidate him by saying that she would file a fake complaint against him. He claimed that she left the couple’s visit to his parents’ home in Bhatapara, Chhattisgarh, in December 2013 after only two days and left for her parents’ home in Bhilai, never to return.
However, the wife refuted all of the accusations and asserted that the husband’s family members had been stealing from her while she was working. Every time she tried to get pregnant, the husband objected on the grounds that they may have a girl kid.
She explicitly stated that she was left at the Bilaspur Railway Station when she arrived in Bhatapara from Durgapur in December 2013, and that her husband had refused to take her with him. As a result, she went to her parents’ house. Additionally, she claimed that she was being degraded in the name of witchcraft.
The wife had filed a complaint under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but the husband’s family members had been exonerated in that case, the court noted after reviewing the arguments and the evidence on file.
The bench also cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Rani Narasimha Sastry v. Rani Suneela Rani, in which the high court determined that even in situations where a prosecution against the husband is brought as a result of a wife’s complaint under Section 498A of the IPC and the husband is ultimately found not guilty, it cannot be said that no cruelty was meted out to him.
In light of this, the bench overturned the family court’s decision and granted the couple’s divorce.
The husband was also mandated by the bench to give the wife 35,000 per month in maintenance.
Written by: Sakshi Sinha, College: KIIT School of Law. Semester: 6th an intern under Legal Vidhiya
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