Ensuring husband loses his job amounts to mental cruelty, is ground for divorce: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday brought down the curtains on a nearly twodecadelong bitter legal battle between a Tamil Nadu couple who never lived together for a single dayGranting a decree of divorce on the husbands plea the top court noted the wife resorted to mental cruelty insulting the husband at his work place filing complaints to ensure he loses his job and continuing legal proceedings against himA bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy noted the conduct of the wife shows disintegration of marital unity and thus disintegration of the marriageIn fact there was no initial integration itself which would allow disintegration afterward The fact that there have been continued allegations and litigative proceedings and that can amount to cruelty is an aspect taken note of by this court it saidJustice Kaul authoring the judgment on behalf of the bench said This is one case where both the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage and the ground of cruelty on account of subsequent facts would favour the grant of decree of divorce in favour of the appellant husbandAlso Read Covid19 SC asks Centre to reconsider decision to exclude compensation for those who died by suicideThe bench noted there were several episodes of harassment where the wife insulted the husband who is an assistant professor in front of students and other professors She was stated to have threatened the husband of physical harm in front of his colleagues and also threatened his employer of a criminal complaintThe couple got married in 2002 and the marriage was never consummated In March 2008 the trial court granted decree of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage Within six days of the order the husband remarriedAt this the first wife filed an appeal where the court set aside the decree of divorce while allowing the petition for restitution of conjugal right In 2018 the high court restored the decree of divorce granted by the trial court The woman filed a review petition on the ground that it was not within the jurisdiction of the high court or the trial court to grant a decree of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage and this was allowed in February 2019The husband moved the top court assailing this orderThe top court noted that the wife sought disciplinary proceedings against husband on account of the second marriage despite the fact that the second marriage took place soon after the decree of divorceThus she sought to somehow ensure that the appellant loses his job Filing of such complaints seeking removal of ones spouse from job has been opined as amounting to mental cruelty it saidThe bench noted in view of the legal position the continuing acts of the wife would amount to cruelty even if the same had not arisen as a cause prior to the institution of the petition as was found by the trial courtWe are thus of the view that a decree of divorce dissolving the marriage between the parties be passed not only in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India on account of irretrievable breakdown of marriage but also on account of cruelty under Section 131ia of the Hindu Marriage Act in light of the subsequent conduct of the respondent during the pendency of judicial proceedings at various stages it saidThe decree of divorce is accordingly passed Marriage stands dissolved it ruledThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever