Allahabad HC grants divorce to husband on grounds of cruelty by wife

The court said if a wife declines to cohabit with her husband and forces him to live in a separate room, her actions will amount to cruelty

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court in a family matter has ruled that if a wife declines to cohabit with her husband and forces him to live in a separate room, her actions will amount to cruelty.

The court also dissolved his marriage solemnised on November 23, 2016 in Lucknow. (For Representation)

The court said by doing so, the wife deprives her husband of his conjugal rights. With this observation, a division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi recently granted divorce to a man while allowing his appeal.

The court also dissolved his marriage solemnised on November 23, 2016 in Lucknow. The man submitted that his wife forced him to live in a separate room and also threatened him with suicide and criminal cases if he entered her room.

Earlier, a family court of Lucknow had dismissed his suit seeking divorce. The man then filed the appeal in the high court challenging the dismissal order of the family court.

After hearing the matter, the bench observed in the judgment, “Cohabitation is an essential part of a matrimonial relationship and if the wife declines to cohabit with the husband by forcing him to live in a separate room, she deprives him of his conjugal rights, which will have an adverse impact on his mental and physical well being and which will amount to both physical and mental cruelty.”

“The plaintiff’s (husband’s) allegation of being wrongfully deprived of his conjugal rights has not been controverted by the defendant-respondent (wife) and the same has been admitted by implication,” the court further observed.

The court said there was sufficient evidence to prove grounds of cruelty for the grant of a decree of divorce. “The judgment and decree of dismissal of suit passed by the family court is unsustainable in law,” it said.