Not Allowing Spouse To Have Sexual Intercourse For A Long Time Amounts To Mental Cruelty: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court last week dissolved the marriage between a couple on the ground of cruelty by observing that not allowing a spouse for a long time, to have sexual intercourse with his or her partner, without sufficient reason, itself amounts to mental cruelty to such spouse.

With this, the bench of Justice Suneet Kumar and Justice Rajendra Kumar-IV allowed the appeal filed by the Husband challenging a family court's order dismissing his divorce petition under Section 13 Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

"Since there is no acceptable view in which a spouse can be compelled to resume life with the consort, nothing is given by trying to keep the parties tied forever to a marriage than that has ceased to in fact," the Court said as it quashed and set aside the order of the Principal Judge, Family Court, Varanasi.

The case in brief

Essentially, against the family court's order, the Husband moved to the High Court submitting the couple (plaintiff-appellant/Husband and defendant-respondent/Wife) got married in May 1979 and after some time, the wife's behaviour and conduct changed and she refused to live with him as his wife. Despite convincing her, she did not establish any relationship with him.

According to him, though they lived under the same roof for some time, the respondent voluntarily began to live separately after some time at her parents' house.

The appellant further asserted that after six months of his marriage, when he tried to convince his wife to come back to the matrimonial home to discharge her obligation of marital life and respect the marital bond, she refused to come back.

Thereafter, in July 1994, a Panchayat was held in the village and according to community rituals, the parties arrived at an agreement of divorce, as per which, they got mutually divorced after the husband had paid permanent alimony at Rs. 22,000/- to the wife.

After this, the wife contracted second marriage and when the Husband sought a decree of divorce on the basis of mental cruelty, long desertion and a divorce agreement, she did not turn up in court despite sufficient service through publication hence, the court proceeded with the case, ex-parte.

After examining the entire evidence led before the Family court, it did not find the case of the plaintiff-appellant (Husband) proved and the case was ordered to be dismissed ex-parte with cost. Feeling aggrieved with the impugned order, the Husband preferred the instant appeal.

High Court's observations

At the outset, the Court noted that dismissing the case of the Husband, the Family Court had observed that papers filed by him were photocopies and no original papers were filed by him and that the photocopy of papers is not admissible in evidence.

The family court also observed in the impugned judgment that there is no evidence on the file showing that the defendant-respondent (wife) had contracted second marriage.

Against this backdrop, the HC noted that it was evident from the record that for a long duration, the parties to the marriage had lived separately, and that as per the husband, the wife had no respect for the marital bond, denied discharging her obligation of marital liability and thus, there had been a complete breakdown of their marriage.

The Bench further noted that the Family court adopted a hyper-technical approach and passed the order of dismissal of the plaintiff-appellant's case despite the fact that there was nothing on record to controvert the evidence filed by him.

Further, referring to the Apex Court's judgment in the case of Vinita Saxena vs. Pankaj Pandit, (2006) 3 SCC 778 on the aspect of mental cruelty, the bench found faults with the order of the family court and hence, the same was set aside and the court allowed Husband's appeal.

Appearances

Counsel for Appellant: M. Islam, Ahmad Saeed, Azim Ahmad Kazmi 

Case title - Ravindra Pratap Yadav vs. Asha Devi And Others [FIRST APPEAL No. - 405 of 2013]

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (AB) 160

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