Calling Husband Transgender Amounts To Mental Cruelty: Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the divorce granted by a family court in favour of the husband, observing that wife calling her husband Hijda (transgender) amounts to mental cruelty.

Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi said, "If the findings recorded by the learned Family Court, are examined in the light of the … judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, it comes out that the acts and conduct of the appellant-wife amounts to cruelty. Firstly, terming the respondent-husband as Hijda (transgender) and calling his mother to have given birth to a transgender, is an act of cruelty."

The Court was hearing an appeal of wife against the order of a Family Court whereby divorce was granted in favour of her husband by a family court on July 12.

The husband in the divorce plea had alleged that his wife was addicted to watching pornography and used to ask her ailing mother-in-law to bring lunch on the first floor to her room. According to the plea she also  used to taunt him for not “being physically fit to compete with her” and told that she wanted to marry someone else.

However, the wife had denied the allegations and submitted that said she was thrown out of her matrimonial home by the husband.

After examining the submissions, the Court observed that, "The acts of cruelty must be such from which it can be reasonably and logically concluded that there cannot be any re-union between the parties due to the said acts. The cruelty can either be physical or mental or both. Though there is no mathematical formula to devise the extent of cruelty alleged against, yet the facts and circumstances of each and every case must be examined in the light of the gravity contained in them."

The Court noted that, the petition filed under Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act have been dismissed by JMIC Court, holding that no domestic violence was caused to her.

It also noted that cruelty case has been filed by the wife against the husband but the same is pending adjudication.

Considering that the parties "had been living separately for the last six years", the bench said, "it was rightly found by the learned family court that the marriage between the parties has ruptured beyond repair and it has become a dead wood."

In the light of above the divorces was upheld and the wife's appeal was dismissed.

Title: XXXX v. XXXXX 

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (PH) 308