LI Network
Published on: 29 September 2023 at 11:15 IST
The Delhi High Court has ruled that intentionally denying a child’s affection to the other parent constitutes mental cruelty, thereby upholding the divorce of a separated couple.
In an appeal filed by the wife against a 2018 family court decision granting divorce, the court found that the daughter had been alienated and used as a weapon against her husband, who is an army officer.
Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna dismissed the appeal, emphasizing that such child alienation is an extreme form of mental cruelty towards a father who has never neglected his child.
The court acknowledged the disputes between the couple, who married in 1996, but stressed that involving the child in their bitterness and turning her against her father was inappropriate. Any act by a parent calculated to deny the other parent affection is considered alienation, amounting to mental cruelty.
The court also rejected the wife’s objections about the husband’s daily alcohol consumption, stating that regular alcohol consumption alone doesn’t equate to being an alcoholic or having a bad character when there were no adverse incidents.
The court noted that making friends at the workplace while living separately due to work requirements cannot be considered cruelty.
Regarding the husband’s earlier intimate relationship with another woman, which had been condoned by the wife, the court ruled it couldn’t be viewed as cruelty in the divorce petition. However, the court found that the wife’s vindictive actions, including filing complaints against the husband and alienating their daughter, demonstrated various acts of cruelty toward him.
The husband sought divorce based on several grounds, including the wife’s refusal to join him at his duty stations due to his Army postings, her interference with his relationship with their daughter, and her unilateral cessation of cohabitation in 2008.
The court upheld the divorce on grounds of cruelty, even though desertion was not proven.
