Mere Pleading That Husband Was Attempting Sodomy Sufficient To Grant Divorce To The Wife On The Ground Of Cruelty: Uttarakhand HC [Read Judgment]

‘It will amount to be a cruelty, the reason being that no wife will ever in defence plead such an act to determine cruelty.’

The Uttaranchal High Court recently observed that mere pleading by the wife in the divorce petition that husband was making an attempt to have an unnatural sexual relationship (sodomy) is sufficient to grant divorce on the ground of ‘cruelty’.

The wife had come in appeal before the high court against the Family court order dismissing her petition seeking divorce. The family court had referred to some letters exchanged between the couple and some other instances to hold that cruelty was not proved.

Her case was that her husband had a bad habit of consuming liquor and often coming to home in an intoxicated condition. He also used to misbehave with her and used to inflict mental cruelty and that she endured all the atrocities so as to maintain the harmony in the family and also to sustain the matrimonial life.

The bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma referred to the pleadings in the case and said: “It may not be a very safe mode of determining so (that there is no cruelty), particularly, In a proceeding under Section 13 of the Act where the wife raises an allegation that husband was making an attempt to have unnatural sexual relationship (sodomy). Mere pleading of the said action is sufficient because this is an act which cannot be proved by any evidence and, more particularly, when the wife asserts that the husband was forcing for sodomy. It will amount to be a cruelty, the reason being that no wife will ever in defence plead such an act to determine cruelty. Thus, the view which has been assigned by the learned Family Court holding thereof that there was no cruelty exercised by the husband is contrary to the evidence on record. Since the act of cruelty stands established by act and action tacitly admitted by respondent and in view of the reasoning and evidence which has been brought on record by the wife, this appeal deserves to be allowed on this count itself.”

Allowing the appeal by dissolving the marriage, the bench added: “A decree of divorce deserves to be granted to the appellant herein, as under given circumstances, continuing of such of a shattered relationship would amount to forcing a party to spend life under compulsion, which could never be the object of the Act.”