The Jharkhand High Court has dissolved a marriage after finding that the husband’s alleged extramarital relationship, physical assaults and insistence that his wife accept the other woman as a younger sister amounted to matrimonial cruelty. A Division Bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava allowed the wife's appeal and set aside the Family Court's earlier decision refusing divorce.
Background
The couple married on February 24, 2018, according to Hindu rites and customs. Both were medical practitioners, with the wife employed at Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and the husband serving at a Primary Health Centre in Tundi, Dhanbad.
According to the wife's allegations, the husband subjected her to physical abuse and maintained an extramarital relationship with another woman. She claimed that the assaults caused serious health problems, including a slipped disc and traumatic osteoarthritis. She further alleged that, despite family intervention and an assurance that the relationship would end, the husband continued his conduct.
The wife left the matrimonial home, and the couple had been living separately since September 5, 2019. She subsequently sought divorce under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which permits divorce on the ground of cruelty.
The Family Court dismissed her petition, holding that she had failed to establish cruelty. Challenging that decision, she approached the High Court.
The High Court examined the oral testimony, medical records and other evidence presented during the proceedings. It found that the Family Court had not properly assessed the evidence as a whole and had instead considered it in separate parts.
The Bench observed that the husband's insistence that his wife accept the other woman as her younger sister amounted to “mental cruelty of the gravest kind.”
The Court also rejected the approach of dismissing the wife's medical records merely because they originated from a nursing home owned by her father. It noted that the origin of medical documents alone did not make them unreliable without specific reasons to doubt their authenticity.
Addressing the applicable legal standard, the Bench reiterated that cruelty in matrimonial proceedings must be assessed on the balance of probabilities, rather than the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt.
The Court also considered the couple's prolonged separation and the wife's clear unwillingness to resume married life. It concluded that the evidence, taken cumulatively, established cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act.
Finding the Family Court's assessment of the evidence legally unsustainable, the High Court quashed and set aside its judgment dated November 17, 2023.
The Bench dissolved the marriage by a decree of divorce and allowed the appeal. It also granted the wife liberty to approach the Family Court for alimony under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, by initiating appropriate proceedings and producing supporting evidence.
