In a landmark decision, the Calcutta High Court has granted a divorce decree to a husband, citing the ‘imposition’ of the wife’s friend and family on him and a false case of matrimonial cruelty as grounds of mental cruelty. The division bench, led by Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, overturned a previous trial court judgement that had denied the divorce.
The bench, which also included Justice Uday Kumar, delivered its judgement on December 19, affirming that the husband had sufficiently demonstrated mental cruelty inflicted by the wife. This cruelty included the unwelcome and continuous presence of the wife’s friend and family members at the husband’s official residential quarters in Kolaghat, East Midnapore district, against his wishes.
The court noted, “Such imposition of friend and family of the respondent on the husband at his quarter against his will, sometimes even when the respondent-wife herself was not there, over a continuous period of time, can definitely be constituted as cruelty.” This behavior, according to the bench, could have made life unbearable for the appellant, falling within the broader definition of cruelty.
Further complicating the marital discord, the wife had unilaterally decided to cease conjugal relations for a considerable period, signaling an irreparable breach in the matrimonial bond. The couple, married since December 15, 2005, had been living separately since May 2008, with the wife residing in her official quarters in Narkeldanga, Kolkata, and the husband in Kolaghat.
The husband initiated the divorce suit in September 2008, shortly before a criminal proceeding was launched against him and his family under Section 498A of the IPC, based on a complaint by the wife. The husband was later acquitted of these charges, which his lawyer argued demonstrated the complaint’s baselessness and further constituted acts of cruelty.
The wife’s lawyer contended that the husband had not substantiated his claims of cruelty, a stance that was rejected by the division bench. The bench highlighted that the wife’s allegations were vague, lacking specific details or instances of cruelty, and were made after years of seemingly untroubled marriage.
