MADURAI: Observing that the removal of a wife's uterus due to cancer and the resulting loss of her ability to bear children would not amount to infliction of mental cruelty on the husband, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently dismissed a man's appeal against the rejection of his divorce petition by the Tirunelveli Family Court.
According to the order, passed by a bench comprising justices RMT Teekaa Raman and PB Balaji, the couple got married in 2014. Following this, the woman suffered four abortions and it was only during the fourth abortion that the couple came to know she suffered from ovarian cancer. Due to this, she underwent chemotherapy and her uterus had to be removed to survive the cancer.
The judges noted that though the man initially supported his wife during treatment, he later moved the divorce petition, upon the instigation of his relatives, citing childlessness. He alleged that the woman suffered from cancer even before their marriage, and had married him after hiding the said fact. However, the family court rejected the petition due to absence of evidence.
Further, the high court bench upheld the family court's order by pointing out that the woman's uterus was removed only due to a medical emergency and it cannot be treated as mental cruelty. The judges also added that her period of treatment cannot be termed as desertion as claimed by her husband, and further recommended NGOs and corporates with CSR funds to provide financial aid to the couple, if the husband is willing to opt for adoption or surrogacy.