Husband Has No Right To Torture Wife And Beat Her Merely Because They Are Married: Delhi High Court

While dissolving a decade old marriage of a couple, the Delhi High Court has observed that no law has given husband the right to subject his wife to beatings and torture merely because they got married.

“Merely because the parties got married and the respondent was her husband, no law gave him the right to subject his wife to beatings and torture,” a division bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said.

Holding that the wife’s testimony of being subjected to physical assault by husband was corroborated by the medical documents, the court observed,

“Such conduct [torture and beatings] of the respondent [husband] necessarily qualifies as physical cruelty entitling the appellant [wife] to divorce under Section 13(1) (ia) of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.”

The court was deciding an appeal filed by the wife against dismissal of her petition for grant of divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion by the husband.

The appellant wife claimed that soon after the marriage, she was subjected to physical and mental torture by the husband and that various atrocities were meted out to her which she continued to tolerate in the fond hope that things would get settled. It was her case that the atrocities of the husband and his family members increased day by day since their sole aim was to get rid of her so that they could marry off their son to some other girl of some affluent family.

The wife in her testimony had deposed that she was subjected to dowry demands, harassment and was beaten and tortured on various occasions and was treated like a maid in the matrimonial house. It was also alleged that money was demanded from her to enable her husband to set up his business.

“Though it is true that the evidence on record is by way of sole testimony of the appellant and no other family member has been examined but it cannot be over looked that there is no challenge to her testimony,” the court noted.

It said that the husband failed to explain the circumstances in which the wife had been left at her parental home and that he did not also counter her testimony that she was not brought back to the matrimonial home, for which there existed no reason.

“It is proved that the respondent had failed to resume the companionship with the appellant and thus not only there existed physical separation but it was also coupled with “animus” of not bring back the appellant to the matrimonial home. That the respondent had no intention of resuming the matrimonial relationship which also got reflected when he chose not to contest the petition,” the court said.

The bench also said that the petition for divorce was filed after more than two years of separation and therefore, the wife was entitled to divorce on the ground of desertion under Section 13 1 (ib) of the Hindu Marriage Act.

Case Title: RS v. AS

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 759

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