HC grants divorce to man after wife writes letter to his employer

The Bombay high court (HC) granted divorce to a 47-year-old Navi Mumbai resident, on the grounds of his estranged wife writing a letter to his employer, levelling unfounded allegations of adultery against him.

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The division bench of justices VM Deshpande and SM Modak accepted the wife’s act of writing the letter to her husband’s employer “as an actionable cruelty within the purview of Section 13(1) (i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act” and granted him divorce.

The couple married in May 1993 and had two sons. Relations between the spouses soured and in May 2006 the woman left her matrimonial home along with the children.

In June 2008, the woman visited her matrimonial home again, break open the lock in absence of her husband and wrote to his employer, stating that he had an extra-marital affair.

A few days later, the 47-year-old moved the family court in Nagpur, where the marriage was solemnised. He sought divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty and desertion. He moved the HC in appeal after the family court rejected his divorce petition in March 2012.

The HC accepted his contention that the woman’s conduct, making unsubstantiated allegations against the husband, amounted to mental cruelty, as contemplated under the Hindu Marriage Act and the husband was entitled to a divorce.

HC said trust and confidence are foundations of a marriage and if one spouse establishes an extra-marital affair, it is considered as an act of damaging the foundation. “And, if one of the spouses makes such allegations and he/she fails to prove it, it is considered as an act causing mental pain to the other spouse and an instance of cruelty,” stated the bench.