NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court recently, while rejecting an appeal filed by a woman challenging a family court order granting divorce to her husband on grounds of cruelty, observed that wife raising allegations about the “manhood” of her husband can be very depressing and mentally traumatic which ultimately contributes to mental cruelty and harassment of the husband.
“Any successful marriage is built on mutual respect and faith. If either is compromised beyond a level, the end of the relationship is inevitable as no relationship can stand on half-truth, half-lies, half-respect and half faith,” the division bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed.
Noting that the husband was forced to undergo the impotency test and found to be fit, the court stated that forcing the husband to go through an impotency test, along with, the allegations of an extramarital affair and calling him a womanizer is sufficient to create mental agony and trauma.
“Unfortunately, here is a case where the husband himself is being publicly harassed, humiliated and verbally attacked by his wife, who had gone to the extent of levelling allegations of infidelity during his office meetings in front of all his office staff/guests.
She even took to harassing the woman workers of his office and left no stone unturned to portray him as a womanizer in the office. This behaviour is but an act of extreme cruelty to the respondent/ husband,” the court held. “Clearly, such kind of allegations about the manhood of a person would not only be depressive but also mentally traumatic for any person to accept,” the division bench, also comprising of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, observed.
Upholding the order of the family court, the bench stated that the husband was entitled for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act. According to the case details, the wife had filed an application in a trial court, seeking Rs 2 lakh per month as maintenance and Rs 2 lakh on account of expenses of legal proceedings.
A perusal of the record shows that the wife has already been awarded, an amount of Rs 25,000 per month as maintenance and an additional amount of Rs 10,000 for the upbringing of the minor child as well as an amount of Rs 50,000 litigation expenses, the high court stated. “Accordingly, we find no merit in the appeal, filed by the wife and thus dismiss it,” the high court added.
Family court order upheld
Upholding the order of the family court, the bench stated that the husband was entitled for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act. Accordingly, we find no merit in the appeal, filed by the wife and thus dismiss it,” the high court said.