A local court has granted divorce to a resident of Sector 44 who had filed a petition citing alleged extra-marital affairs of his wife and the misconduct of his in-laws.
In the arguments made by his counsel, it was alleged that after the wife, a private school teacher, left her marital home, she started making false and defamatory complaints against the petitioner. She also allegedly sent a defamatory letter to different authorities, her mother and some common relatives of both the parties,with an ill-intent to slander the petitioner husband.
Though initially in her cross-examination she denied having sent any such letter, when she was confronted with the copy of her cross-examination recorded in a prior guardianship petition, she stated that she had written the letter.
As per the petitioner’s counsel, it was argued that the contents of the letter are very obscene, and vulgar allegations were made against him to allegedly project him as a sex-maniac. She had also made allegations of cruelty and approached authorities, such as the governor and police authorities, for taking legal action but it did not result in the registration of an FIR. Even her application under Section 156 (which deals with the power of police officers to investigate cognisable cases, even without a magistrate’s order) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was dismissed and her private complaint was also dismissed in default for want of prosecution by the area magistrate, Panchkula. The husband had filed a defamation complaint where she was summoned and later granted bail by the court.
The counsel alleged that this was done to take revenge after one of her extra-marital affairs was exposed and she had never filed any type of complaint against the husband or his family members. Reliance was also placed upon the Vijay Kumar Ram Chaudhry Bhate vs Neela Vijay Kumar Bhate case of 2003 wherein the Supreme Court held that reckless and unfounded allegations of unchaste illicit relations strikes at the very foundation of marriage and amounts to great mental cruelty. Other similar judgments of the apex court were also relied upon.
{{/usCountry}}The counsel alleged that this was done to take revenge after one of her extra-marital affairs was exposed and she had never filed any type of complaint against the husband or his family members. Reliance was also placed upon the Vijay Kumar Ram Chaudhry Bhate vs Neela Vijay Kumar Bhate case of 2003 wherein the Supreme Court held that reckless and unfounded allegations of unchaste illicit relations strikes at the very foundation of marriage and amounts to great mental cruelty. Other similar judgments of the apex court were also relied upon.
{{/usCountry}}The court of additional district judge, Puneet Mohan Sharma observed that from the perusal of the letter, “allegations against the petitioner husband, which are otherwise not substantiated in any judicial proceedings by the respondent wife goes to show that it must have caused deep anguish, disappointment and frustration to the petitioner husband. Circulating such letters would definitely cause embarrassment and would incarcerate the petitioner husband and his family members, as the sole purpose of this letter seems to causing harm, harassment, hurt, persistent trauma and humiliation in social circles, and it amounts to causing mental cruelty as envisaged under Section 13 (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act.”
The court concluded that it would be impossible for the husband to live with his wife and dissolved the marriage with costs. Further attempts to call the petition non-maintainable by the applicant’s wife were decided against her.
.