The Telangana High Court in its order dated June 07, 2024 upheld a Family Court order that had dismissed a husband’s petition for divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act observing that Irretrievable Breakdown in Marriage is not a ground for divorce.
The parties in this case have been living separately since 17-years.
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Case:
The couple had an arranged married in May 2006 as per Hindu rites and rituals.
The said marriage was consummated and thereafter, the respondent wife allegedly started harassing the appellant husband on petty issues.
According to the husband, wife led a happy married life only for 15 days, subjected him to cruelty and deserted him on April 15, 2007.
The husband had filed for divorce in the year 2009, which was rejected by Family Court in 2011 and now also by the High Court in 2024, since he was unable to prove his charges against the wife.
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Allegations by Husband
The husband in his divorce petition alleged that his wife did not allow him to speak with his mother or other family members. The wife kept making baseless allegations that he was having an affair with his sister-in-law and insisted on moving to a separate home, which the husband did not agree to.
The husband also added that his wife would want him to act on her finger tips and obey to whatever she said. Not just this, but the wife also used to harass the appellant and his family members with the help of her sister, who was working as a constable at Mahila Police Station in Begumpet.
Further, the wife was so suspicious of her husband, that she used to escort him until he reached his work place. If the husband would return late from work due to traffic jam, she used to suspect him and demand an explanation.
In 2009, the respondent wife even implicated the appellant and his family members in an alleged false domestic violence case under Section 12 of Domestic Violence Act.
Child Was Born
The husband has made serious charges against the paternity of the child.
The husband shared that he did not have any matrimonial relation with respondent wife from 2007 and the wife had herself admitted of losing out three months pregnancy (miscarriage) in 2006. According to the husband, the wife giving birth to a child in 2007 was a surprise and only she knew the facts.
The husband even alleged that the wife never informed him about her pregnancy and delivery of a child for two years.
Thus, the husband moved an application for divorce in 2009 on grounds of cruelty and desertion.
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Allegations and Defense by Wife
In her defense to the husband’s accusations, the wife submitted counter allegations of dowry demand. According to her, though her father had passed away, her mother and brothers performed her marriage on a grand scale and had given an amount of Rs 3 lakh towards dowry, 30 tulas of gold and 1 kilogram of silver articles as demanded by the appellant and his mother.
The wife then alleged that she was able to live in her matrimonial home peacefully only for 15 days and later her husband, his elder brother, his elder brother’s wife and his mother started ill-treating and beating her.
According to the wife, the beatings by husband’s family continued while she was carrying a baby in the third month in the year 2006. She even accused her mother-in-law of administering poison in some curry, that had resulted in her abortion. The wife then stated that the husband and his mother informed her that she should not give birth to any child as the family was happy with husband’s elder brother’s son.
On birth of child
Wife informed court that she was three months pregnant again in April 2007, however, the husband’s family once again tried to poison her forcing an abortion. After she was thrown out of her matrimonial home, she started living with her brothers.
In October 2007, the wife gave birth to a baby boy, and according to her when she informed her husband and his family, no one turned up to meet the child.
She accused her husband of suspecting her of infidelity only to pass on the blame.
Family Court
In 2011, the Family Court had dismissed husband’s petition for divorce as he was unable to prove grounds for cruelty and desertion by wife.
Accordingly, this order was challenged by the husband in the High Court.
READ ORDER | Hindu Marriage Act Does Not Recognise Irretrievable Breakdown In Marriage As Grounds For Divorce Leaving Parties To Suffer: Delhi High Court
Telangana High Court
The main submission of the husband in the High Court was that parties had been living separately since 17-years, and the couple had enjoyed healthy marital relations only for about a month.
Going through arguments from both sides, Justice K Lakshman and Justice P. Sree Sudha of the Telangana High Court analysed the Judgement in three parts: Cruelty, Desertion and Irretrievable Breakdown in Marriage.
Cruelty
At the outset, the bench observed that cruelty can mean different things to different individuals and depends on various aspects. The High Court said,
The concept of cruelty differs from person to person depending upon his upbringing, level of sensitivity, financial position, social status, customs, religious beliefs and value system.
In the present case, the Bench noted that apart from adamant behaviour over petty issues, the appellant husband had failed to prove cruelty.
Desertion
With regards to desertion, the Court relied on Lachman Utamchand Kirpalani v. Meena @ Mota case (Supreme Court Judgement dated August 1963) that to prove desertion, two ingredients, i.e., factum of separation and intention to bring cohabitation permanently to an end has to be established. The Court further added:
Similarly, two elements are essential so far as the deserted spouse is concerned: (1) the absence of consent, and (2) absence of conduct giving reasonable cause to the spouse leaving the matrimonial home to form the necessary intention aforesaid.
Irretrievable Breakdown In Marriage
The High Court held that even though there is no possibility of two individuals living together and there is an ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’, divorce cannot be granted under section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, citing the said reason.
The Court added:
Neither, the Family Court nor this (High) Court can grant divorce on the said ground. The said aspect can be considered while coming to a conclusion with regard to alleged cruelty.
Since the husband was unable to prove any charges agains the wife, the High Court upheld the Family Court order dismissing the divorce petition.
READ ORDER | Supreme Court Dismisses Divorce Appeal By 89-Year-Old Husband Separated Since Twenty-Seven Years | Irretrievable Breakdown In Marriage
Voice For Men India Take:
- Divorce under Hindu Marriage Act is fault based
- This means, unless either parties are able to prove faults of the other (as per parameters mentioned in the Act), divorce cannot be granted automatically only on the basis of number of years in separation
- As it is evident in this case, parties have been living apart for nearly two decades, yet the husband cannot be granted his legal freedom, because the opposite party chooses not to consent
- In fact, the lower and High Courts are not empowered to exercise Irretrievable Breakdown in Marriage as a law, and currently, it is only the Supreme Court that can do so under Article 142 of the Constitution
- If we go by the pace of our Judicial system, it takes anywhere between 15-20 years by the time a contested divorce case reaches the apex court
- In the interim, the party seeking divorce has wasted his/her prime years of life, while the contesting party is also living a hollow life assuming some sort of moral victory
- Irretrievable breakdown in marriage has nothing to do with men’s or women’s rights, this is actually a violation of a human right that legally traps an individual for life
- A point of advice to all who are facing a similar situation: A regressive law should not be a reason to stop your life
- The best way defeat anyone’s fake moral victory, is to live a full life
- The only thing you cannot do is remarry without divorce, however, it’s time men start having broader perspectives in life and not limit themselves to preset society norms, that judge anyone only on the basis of their marital status
- On one hand, when adultery is decriminalised, all our moral ethics go for a toss, and on the other, when it comes to legal exit from a dead union, our law takes shield under the garb of Hindu Traditions and Culture
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