Marriage Not Presumed To Be Irretrievably Broken Down When There Is Long Separation; Voluntary Desertion, Other Factors Necessary: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has held that marriage cannot be presumed irretrievably broken down just because there has been a long separation period between the parties. It has been held that voluntary desertion along with other circumstances need to be seen to conclude that divorce can be granted on grounds of irretrievable breakdown of marriage.

The bench of Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Donadi Ramesh held that

“The decisions of the Supreme Court do not lay down a rule of thumb that the marriage may be presumed to be irretrievably broken down if the parties have suffered separation for any length of time. Only where one of the parties is seen to have voluntarily deserted the other and parties have continued in that status for long period of time then in view of the other attending circumstances as may indicate to the Court that there is no substance in the marriage, a conclusion may be reached that the marriage has been irretrievably broken down.”

The Court observed that relationship between the parties may still remain despite troubled marriage, but divorce cannot be granted on grounds of irretrievable breakdown of marriage solely based on the length of separate period between the husband and the wife.

Factual Background

Parties were married in 1999 and had two children out of the wedlock, who have attained majority. Though the parties were initially residing at Varansai with the husband's parents, after the death of his father, in-harness, appellant got a compassionate appointment posting in Mirzapur. The wife stayed back with the mother of the husband till the latter's death.

Appellant pleaded that due to the care his wife provided to his mother, there were good relations between them and the mother executed a Will in her favour. Appellant alleged cruelty on part of his wife and her family against him. Thereafter, he filed for divorce.

Appellant-husband approached the High Court against the order of the Principal Judge, Family Court, Varanasi rejecting the divorce petition filed under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act.

Counsel for husband argued that appellant had proved the fact of continuous act of cruelty before the Family Court by showing various acts committed by the wife, including stopping him from visiting his parents, performing his mother's last rites, etc. It was argued that the marriage had broken down irretrievably as the parties had stayed separately since 1999.

High Court Verdict

The Court observed that the allegations of cruelty, though consistently made, are vague in nature and no date, time and place of any of the occurrences have been brought before the Court. The Court held that such bald and unsubstantiated allegations can never be tested “through any process of rational cross examination.”

Observing that no evidence or witnesses had been led by the appellant to prove cruelty, the Court held that in absence of such details, the Trial Court had rightly rejected the divorce petition on grounds of cruelty.

The Court observed that the Trial Court had rightly considered that the appellant had left the home for job, and his wife had continued to take care of the mother for disbelieving the case of the appellant. The Court held that the marriage cannot be said to have irretrievably broken down under the aforesaid circumstances.

Considering the execution of Will by the mother of the appellant in favour of his, the Court held that

“that relationship having survived, the occurrence of the appellant having moved to Mirzapur and having stayed there for long years, cannot be cited to claim that the marriage between the parties has irretrievably broken down for reason of long separation suffered on account of job taken by the appellant accompanied with the fact that his spouse was required to or continued to take care of the mother of the appellant.”

The Court held that the events of husband having left for job and wife staying back to take care of the mother show her devotion to the marriage. It was held that the same cannot be grounds of irretrievable break down of marriage when there were no other circumstances shown to establish the break down.

Accordingly, the appeal against rejection of divorce petition was dismissed.

Case Title: Mahendra Kumar Singh v. Rani Singh [FIRST APPEAL No. - 153 of 2016]

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