RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court has ruled that compelling a wife to accept her husband’s extramarital relationship and live with his partner as her “younger sister” amounts to mental cruelty of the gravest kind. Setting aside a Hazaribagh Family Court order that had rejected her divorce plea, the court granted the woman a divorce on grounds of mental cruelty.
A Division Bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Pradeep Kumar Srivastava reserved its judgment on August 17, 2026, and pronounced it on September 23, 2026. The court allowed First Appeal No. 82 of 2024 under Section 19(1) of the Family Courts Act, 1984, and granted a divorce decree under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
The couple, both medical practitioners, married on February 24, 2018, in Charhi, Hazaribagh district, according to Hindu rites. They have been living separately since September 5, 2019, and have no children.
The husband filed a petition seeking restitution of conjugal rights on January 18, 2022, and secured an ex-parte decree on January 17, 2023. The wife had filed for divorce on April 5, 2022, alleging cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act.
The Hazaribagh Family Court dismissed her petition on November 17, 2023, holding that she had failed to establish a cause of action and discharge the burden of proof. She then challenged the order before the High Court.
The wife alleged that her husband was involved with a widow and continued the relationship despite signing a bond promising to end it after family intervention. She also accused him of repeatedly assaulting her, leaving her with a spinal condition and osteoarthritis.
After examining the testimonies of her father, uncle and brother, along with her medical records, the High Court held that the Family Court had assessed the evidence “in piece meal” and ignored the principle of preponderance of probability applicable to matrimonial disputes. It found the lower court’s conclusion on cruelty perverse, noting that her family members had corroborated her testimony. It also said her medical records could not be rejected merely because they came from a clinic owned by her father.
On the husband’s relationship, the court held that his insistence that his wife accept it and live with the other woman as a “younger sister” amounted to mental cruelty.
“On the basis of the discussion made hereinabove, this Court is of the considered view that the conduct of the respondent- husband has showed that it is the mental cruelty caused by him by having illicit relationship with another women and has forced appellant-wife to leave her matrimonial house as it was almost impossible for the appellant-wife to live with the respondent husband where the thread of trust has already been broken,” stated the court order. The respondent’s insistence that the petitioner should accept such relationship and live with his partner as a “younger sister” amount to mental cruelty of the gravest kind, it said.
The court also granted the wife liberty to approach the Family Court under Section 25 of the Act by instituting proceedings and leading evidence.