Wilful and prolong separation from the spouse without any reasonable cause is cruelty- Allahabad High Court

Case Details
Case No.: First Appeal No. 177 of 2017
Bench: Hon’ble Vivek Kumar Birla,J. Hon’ble Donadi Ramesh,J.

Allahabad High Court upholding the judgment passed by the learned Court below granted divorce to the husband.

The appeal was filed by the appellant wife challenging the order passed by the Principal Judge, Family Court, Meerut.

The facts of the case discloses that the marriage was performed as per Hindu rites and rituals in 2002 after the offer having been accepted through matrimonial advertisement in a newspaper in the year 2001.

The appellant wife lived for a short period of time with the respondent husband and subsequently joined services away from the place of employment of her husband. The couple is not having any child.

The appellant wife in her written statement stated several facts including that of extra marital affair.

The Court below framed two issues-
1. Whether there was desertion by the wife two years before from the date of filing of the petition
2. Whether defendant wife committed any cruelty with the plaintiff husband

While discussing issues the Court observed-
1. It was found that the appellant never lived continuously with the husband throughout the period.
2. The allegations in regard to demand of dowry levelled against the husband were false and no evidence whatsoever was produced nor any complaint or FIR was lodged in this respect with any authority or concerned police officer
3. The allegation of injury caused to the appellant wife was found to be of before marriage and no FIR or complaint whatsoever was ever reported to anyone this also turned out to be a false allegation.
4. In regard to extra marital affair of the husband as alleged by the wife, the wife failed to prove the case as it is false and was not reflected or corroborated from the evidence. It was found that mental cruelty was caused to the husband.

The Hon’ble Court relied on judgments passed by the Hon’ble Apex Court held in –
Rakesh Raman v Smt. Kavita AIR 2023 SC 2144
Samar Ghosh v Jaya Ghosh (2007) 4 SCC 511
Naveen Kohli v Neelu Kohli AIR 2006 SC 1675
Rajib Kumar Roy v Sushmita Saha 2023 SCC Online SC 1221
Joydeep Majumdar v Bharti Majumdar 2021 (1) ARC 505 (SC)

The Court finding no merit in the case dismissed the appeal upholding the divorce granted by the learned Family Court, Meerut.