Not Granting Divorce In A Dead Marriage Is 'Cruelty' To Both Husband And Wife: Uttarakhand High Court

Noting that not granting divorce when the marriage is a 'dead marriage' would amount to cruelty, the Uttarakhand High Court allowed the dissolution of a marriage wherein both parties had separated 25 days after their marriage.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal added that there was no scope for 'emotional bonding' or 'patch-up' among them since they remained separated for nearly five years.

“Keeping in view the facts of this marriage, it can be said that this marriage is nothing more than a dead marriage, and if both the parties are not granted divorce, it will amount to cruelty to both the parties….”, the bench sitting at Nainital added.

The court has also directed the husband to pay twenty-five lakhs as permanent alimony, according to the undertaking given by himself, within six weeks. The court, therefore, allowed the appeal filed by the husband against the decree of Family Court Judge, Haridwar in 2021. The Family Court Judge had dismissed the husband's divorce petition in 2021.

The marriage was solemnised on 02.05.2019 and they have been living separately since 2019. The maintenance decided by the Family Court in 2021 was Rs 20,000/- during the pendency of the divorce case. However, the divorce petition filed by the appellant-husband under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage got dismissed in 2021. In 2022, the High Court granted interim maintenance of Rs 20,000/- to the wife from the date of filing the appeal.

“…since both the parties are qualified, it would amount to cruelty if they are not freed from this relationship. There is no scope of patching up between the parties.”, the court added after noting that they had no children born out of the wed lock.

Reliance was also placed on apex court judgments in Prakashchandra Joshi v. Kuntal Prakashchandra Joshi @ Kuntal Visanji Shah (2024) and Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan, 2023 LiveLaw SC 375. In these cases, the Supreme Court has spoken at length about the irretrievable breakdown of marriage after a long period of separation.

For Appellant: Advocate Pankaj Kaushik

For Respondent: Advocate Ankur Sharma

Case No: FA 83 of 2021

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