Pressure to cut ties with family grounds for divorce, rules Delhi HC

The husband, in 2016, filed for divorce on grounds of cruelty, claiming that his wife was unwilling to live in a joint family, pressured him to partition the family property, and insisted on living separately from his mother and sister

New Delhi

A bench of justices Anil Khsetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar delivered the verdict on Wednesday, while dealing with a woman’s petition challenging a family court’s January 2023 ruling, dissolving the marriage. (Representative photo)

The Delhi High Court has ruled that persistent pressure to sever a spouse’s ties with their family amounts to mental cruelty and can be a valid ground for divorce.

A bench of justices Anil Khsetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar delivered the verdict on Wednesday, while dealing with a woman’s petition challenging a family court’s January 2023 ruling, dissolving the marriage on the ground of cruelty.

The couple married in March 2007, had a son and separated in 2011. The husband, in 2016, filed for divorce on grounds of cruelty, claiming that his wife was unwilling to live in a joint family, pressured him to partition the family property, and insisted on living separately from his mother and sister.

He also alleged that she refused to share household responsibilities, behaved disrespectfully towards his family, caused disturbances at social and professional events, and threatened to implicate his family in criminal cases. The trial court granted divorce in January 2023, after which the woman challenged the decision in the high court.

In her petition, the woman alleged harassment by her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, including humiliation during pregnancy, denial of household resources, and pressure to meet unreasonable expectations. She claimed the abuse caused her mental and physical harm, affected her minor son, and frequently necessitated police intervention.

The husband, on the other hand, opposed the petition, asserting that he was suffering from serious medical ailments and was incurring substantial expenditure on treatment, and thus, prolonging the marriage would serve no useful purpose and instead, cause additional hardship.

Considering the contentions, the court, in its verdict authored by justice Shankar on Thursday, upheld the family court’s order, concluding that the husband had clearly established a consistent pattern of pressure, humiliation, threats, and emotional alienation by the wife. The court held that, collectively, this conduct went well beyond the normal strains of married life.

“The Appellant (wife) consistently asserted that she did not wish to live in a joint family setup and pressured the Respondent to partition the family property and live separately from his widowed mother and divorced sister. While the mere desire to live separately is not cruelty, persistent and pressurising conduct to sever the Respondent’s bonds with his family certainly is,” the court maintained.

The bench further held that the woman’s act of giving repeated threats and filing police complaints against the husband and his family members also amounted to cruelty.