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If small disputes are viewed as cruelty, many marriages would be at risk: Allahabad high court
In the present case, the couple married in 2013. The husband submitted that the wife refused to consummate their marriage, fought with his parents and once instigated a mob to chase him by calling him a thief. She also filed a dowry case against him.
The Allahabad high court has held if small disputes in a marriage are viewed as ‘cruelty’ by courts under divorce law, many marriages would be at the risk of being dissolved even if there is no actual cruelty by either spouse.
A division bench comprising Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Shiv Shanker Prasad made this observation while directing the judicial separation of an estranged married couple instead of directly allowing a plea for divorce. The order came into limelight on Thursday.
“If courts were to recognize and act on small disputes or occurrences and read them as completion of ingredients of cruelty, may marriage where parties may not be enjoying best relations may stand exposed to dissolution without any real cruelty being committed,” the court said.
In the present case, the couple married in 2013. The husband submitted that the wife refused to consummate their marriage, fought with his parents and once instigated a mob to chase him by calling him a thief. She also filed a dowry case against him.
The wife, meanwhile, accused the husband of having an illicit relationship with his sister-in-law. After a family court declined to allow the husband’s plea for divorce, he moved an appeal before the high court.
The high court said there was no material evidence on record to proceed the allegations made by the parties and also that considering minor incidents and disputes as “cruelty” could lead to the dissolution of many marriages.
In order to constitute marital cruelty, the act has to be serious enough to hinder any efforts at reconciliation. All the same, the bench noted that there were serious disputes between the warring spouses, that their marriage was never consummated and that there was little scope for their reconciliation.
Hence, the court proceeded to allow the parties to separate and granted a decree of judicial separation to the appellant husband. The present first appeal was filed under section 19 of the Family Court Act, 1984, challenging the judgment and order dated March 17, 2020 passed by additional principal judge, family court, Ghaziabad in a divorce petition (Rohit Chaturvedi Vs Smt Neha Chaturvedi).
By that order the court below had on March 17, 2020, dismissed the divorce case proceeding instituted by the present appellant husband Rohit Chaturvedi under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
