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Extramarital affair charges can’t be termed wild allegation if reasons justifiable: HC
The court dismissed the plea from an Ambala Army officer, who had challenged a family court order in which his plea for divorce filed on the grounds of desertion and cruelty was dismissed
: The Punjab and Haryana high court has said that charges of extramartial affairs by a spouse can’t be termed as wild allegations so as to constitute cruelty and a ground for divorce, if a partner has justifiable reasons for the same.
The high court bench of justice Ritu Bahri and justice Manisha Batra dismissed the plea from an Ambala Army officer, who had challenged a family court order in which his plea for divorce filed on the grounds of desertion and cruelty was dismissed.
The estranged husband had argued that the wife had made several complaints before his superiors, levelling allegations which were not proved to be true and this act amounted to cruelty on the part of his wife and a ground for divorce.
However, the court observed that filing of complaints of issuing of notices or news items which might have adverse impact on the business prospectus and job of the spouse would in fact amount to causing mental cruelty to the other spouse.
However, in the case in hand, it had come to light that the wife for complaints before husband’s superiors had relied upon an entry in a register containing writing as “I love you Sona”. The husband had admitted that this was his own hand writing. However, he had explained that the name Sona was an imaginary character.
The court observed that the relation between the husband and wife were not normal. The husband was rather being indifferent towards her and he was neither talking to the wife nor he was permitting her to co-habit with him.
“In such circumstances, the writing as made by the appellant-husband obviously could create a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the wife about him having an affair with some Sona. As such, the fact that in her application she had alleged that the husband was probably having affair with someone, could not be taken as a wild allegation so as to constitute cruelty and a ground for divorce,” the high court bench said, upholding the finding of lower court.
The couple got married in 2009 and a male child was born in October 2011. The husband had filed for divorce in September 2016.
The court observed that in relation to matrimonial matters, it is contemplated that a conduct of such type which endangers the living of the other amounts to cruelty.
Cruelty consists of acts which are dangerous to life, limb or health. It may be physical or mental, it said, adding that mental cruelty is a conduct of the other spouse which causes mental suffering or fear to the matrimonial life of the other.
“Cruelty, however, has to be distinguished from the ordinary wear and tear of the family life. The question whether the act complained of was a cruel act, is to be determined from the whole facts and matrimonial relations between the parties,” the bench asserted.
