BENGALURU: Observing that the husband’s materialistic attitude had caused mental agony and emotional trauma to the wife, and is sufficient to make out grounds of mental cruelty for divorce, the Karnataka HC dissolved the marriage of a couple by decree.
Allowing the appeal filed by the 42-year-old woman from the city, challenging the order of the family court which dismissed her divorce plea, a division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice JM Khazi recently quashed the ex-parte order and decree dated June 22, 2020, passed by the family court in Bengaluru.
Pointing out findings of the family court that the wife failed to prove grounds of cruelty, except financial transactions, the HC said the question of cruelty as ground for divorce has to be determined on the basis of facts of each case, as observed by the Supreme Court.
The court also noted that documents produced by the woman reflected transactions amounting to Rs 60 lakh, made in favour of the husband. It is evident the husband treated his wife as a cash cow, and no emotional ties. His attitude had caused mental agony to her. The family court had grossly erred in not appreciating the version of the wife. The ground of cruelty for dissolution of marriage, as provided under Section 10(X) of the Indian Divorce Act is made out, the court added.
The couple married in 1999 in Chikkamagaluru and have a daughter. As the husband had financial issues and was unable to take care of his wife’s financial needs, she took up a job in the UAE in 2008, and started working at a bank in Abu Dhabi. She also started paying the debts of her husband’s family, and bought agricultural properties in her husband’s name. Her husband failed to be financially independent, and in 2012, she realised that he and his family were draining her financially as well as emotionally. She decided to seek divorce but her husband refused.