LI Network
Published on: 09 September 2023 at 12:52 IST
The Delhi High Court has broadened the scope of mental cruelty to encompass the financial instability of a spouse and subsequently granted a divorce to a woman.
The division bench, comprised of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna, held that the husband’s financial instability, which led him to engage in vices due to a lack of a settled business or profession, inevitably causes anxiety and can be considered a consistent source of mental cruelty to the wife.
This precedent-setting decision came in the context of a matrimonial dispute, revealing a significant financial disparity between the estranged spouses.
The court observed, “The endeavours of the respondent (husband) to be able to sustain himself had admittedly failed. Such kind of financial instability is bound to result in mental anxiety on account of the husband being not settled in any business or profession which resulted in other vices, can be termed as a constant source of mental cruelty to the appellant.
The term ‘mental cruelty’ is wide enough to take within its ambit the ‘financial instability.'”
The case involved a woman’s plea against a family court’s rejection of her divorce request. The couple had married in 1989 but began living separately in 1996.
The woman, a graduate from Delhi University, was employed by a multinational company. During the marriage, it was represented that her husband had also studied at DU and had a substantial income. However, she later discovered that he was not a graduate, had no job, and relied solely on his mother’s income.
The woman alleged that her husband was involved in gambling and other activities, subjected her to physical abuse, and provided no attention or medical care during her two pregnancies, which resulted in miscarriages.
Upon careful consideration of the case, the court found that although the woman claimed harassment due to dowry and physical abuse by the husband and his family members, none of these allegations could be substantiated with evidence.
It concluded that the root cause of the marital discord was the husband’s financial instability, given the significant financial disparity between the spouses.
The court emphasized that the couple had lived separately since November 1996, and no reconciliation had occurred for nearly 27 years, indicating an inability to sustain their matrimonial relationship.
Such a prolonged separation, the court noted, amounted to mental cruelty and granted the woman’s appeal for divorce on grounds of cruelty and desertion.