Rs 2 crore demand, refusing to live with husband amounts to mental cruelty: Chhattisgarh HC
NEW DELHI: The Chhattisgarh high court has upheld a family court’s order granting a husband divorce from his wife. The court held that her refusal to live with him again, along with her demand for Rs 2 crore to agree to the divorce, amounted to mental cruelty. The court dismissed the wife’s appeal on July 7 and also upheld the Rs 10 lakh alimony she had been awarded.Why did the husband seek divorce?According to the court order, the couple got married in June 2020. The husband later went to the family court asking for divorce. He said the marriage broke down after the wife’s relations with his family turned bad, and she left the matrimonial home in February 2022. He also said that even though he and his family asked her several times to come back, and they went through many rounds of counselling, she refused to return and live with him again. This, he said, caused him mental pain and left him without a companion.The wife denied all these claims in her written statement. She said she had always been ready to continue the marriage. Instead, she argued that it was the husband who wanted to end things — pointing to his profile on a matrimonial website, where he described himself as “awaiting divorce,” even before he had filed for divorce. The family court ruled in the husband’s favour, granting divorce on the grounds of cruelty and desertion, and ordering Rs 10 lakh as alimony. The wife then appealed against this order.Why did the high court uphold the divorce decree?The bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal found that the wife had consistently refused to resume living with her husband despite repeated efforts by him and his family to reconcile. It noted that she had admitted during her cross-examination that she would agree to divorce only if paid a lump sum of Rs 2 crore, and observed that mediation before the high court also failed because of the same demand.Referring to the evidence on record, the bench said the prolonged separation, coupled with the wife’s conduct throughout the matrimonial dispute, amounted to mental cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act.“The evidence on record clearly establishes that the parties have been living separately for a considerable period and that the appellant has not shown any genuine inclination to resume matrimonial life. Despite repeated efforts made by the respondent and his family members, as well as mediation attempts, the matrimonial relationship could not be restored. The cumulative conduct of the appellant… has caused the respondent grave mental agony and constitutes mental cruelty within the meaning of Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Act, 1955,” the bench observed.The judges also took note of the failure of the mediation proceedings, observing that the attempt to settle the dispute amicably broke down because of the wife’s financial demand.“From the report of the mediator as well as the material available on record, it is evident that the mediation proceedings failed primarily on account of the exorbitant lump-sum monetary demand made by the appellant, which was not acceptable to the respondent,” it further added.The court said these circumstances, viewed together with the long period of separation and the multiple cases pending between the parties, showed that the marriage had irretrievably broken down and that forcing the couple to remain married would only deepen their distress.“The unsuccessful mediation proceedings, coupled with the prolonged separation of the parties and the multiple litigations pending inter se, reinforce the conclusion that the marriage has reached a stage where its continuance would serve no meaningful purpose and would only perpetuate the mental agony and hardship already suffered by both parties,” the court said.Finding no perversity or illegality in the family court’s reasoning, the high court dismissed the wife’s appeal, upheld the decree of divorce and the award of Rs 10 lakh as permanent alimony, and directed the husband to deposit the amount before the family court within four weeks, after which the wife would be free to withdraw it.
