Delhi HC: Refusal to Acknowledge Matrimonial Bond and Children Constitutes Severe Mental Cruelty

Repudiation of matrimonial bond, refusal to accept kids, gravest kind of mental cruelty: Delhi HC

Repudiation of matrimonial bond and refusal to accept children, who are innocent victims in the ''vile allegations,'' is the gravest kind of mental cruelty, the Delhi High Court has observed. The high court made the observations while dismissing a husband's appeal seeking divorce from his estranged wife on the ground of cruelty and held that it is the woman who has been subjected to cruelty and not the man.

It said scandalous, unsubstantiated aspersions of perfidiousness attributed to the spouse and not even sparing the children, would amount to the worst form of insult and cruelty, which are sufficient to disentitle the man from seeking divorce.

A bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Krishna Bansal said there was no merit in the man's appeal challenging a family court's order dismissing his divorce petition and said the husband has not been able to prove any of his allegations made against the wife and has made vague allegations regarding threats to commit suicide and implication in criminal cases.

''The family judge has rightly observed that leveling of disgusting allegations of unchastity and indecent familiarity with a person outside wedlock and allegations of extra marital relationship, constitute grave assault on the character, honour, reputation, status as well as mental health of the spouse,'' the high court said.

It added that such deplorable allegations and repudiation of the matrimonial bond and refusal to accept the children, who are innocent victims in the vile allegations made by the man, is nothing but the act of mental cruelty of the gravest kind.

The high court further observed that marriage is a relationship which flourishes when nurtured with absolute trust and compassion and a healthy relationship never demands sacrifice of one's dignity.

''Inevitably, it whittles down when sprinkled with accusations on character, fidelity and chastity of the spouse and becomes beyond redemption when the devastating effects of this one-sided barrage of accusations is topped with rejection of paternity and legitimacy of the innocent children, by their own father,'' it said.

The man has submitted that he met his wife in September 2004 and got married the next year.

He alleged that the woman had pressured him to marry her after she established sexual relations with him when he was drunk and subsequently told him that she was pregnant.

The man alleged that the wife threatened to commit suicide and had illicit relationships with many men.

The woman, however, had a different story to tell and she claimed that she was physically abused as she was not able to bear children and was made to undergo extensive tests without her consent.

She said she was given taunts for not being able to bear the children and the purpose of the man's family was only to extract money from her.

The woman said at the time of her son's birth in 2008, her husband was insensitive and hell broke loose when the daughter was born in 2010 as the girl child was not acceptable to the man and his family.

The high court noted that the man, after having left his service, failed to take responsibility of the family and the wife was left to not only suffer the financial burden, but had to struggle to take care of the children and the household responsibilities.

''Such neglect of the man without any reason, clearly reflects his indifferent conduct amounting to cruelty towards the woman,'' it said.

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