Wife Refusing To Establish Physical Relations With Husband Amounts To Cruelty: Madhya Pradesh HC
|The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that the denial of the wife for making physical relationship with the husband amounts to cruelty.
The Bench affirmed the decision of the Family Court which granted divorce to the husband under Sections 13(1)(i-a) and (i-b) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA) on grounds of cruelty and desertion by the wife since she refused to maintain physical relations with him and left her matrimonial house immediately after marriage.
A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Amar Nath (Kesharwani) observed, “Averments of the respondent that on the first night, appellant/wife refused to make physical relationship with respondent/husband is proved…The denial of the appellant/wife for making physical relationship with respondent/husband amounts to cruelty with respondent.”
Advocate Ashok Kumar Jain represented the appellant, while Advocate Brijendra Kumar Vaishya appeared for the respondent.
The husband alleged that after the couple got married, the wife refused to establish physical relations with him on the first night and later left for her parental home and never came back. The wife, on the other hand, claimed that she was subjected to dowry demands and harassment by the husband and his family members.
The Family Court had allowed the husband's petition for divorce under Section 13(1)(i-a) and (i-b) of the HMA. The wife then appealed against the said decision, but the High Court upheld the family court's judgment.
The High Court observed that the wife had admitted in her cross-examination that she had stayed at her in-laws' house for only three days after the marriage and then returned to her parental house. She also admitted that she had refused to go back to her in-laws' house when her father-in-law and other relatives came to take her back.
The Bench further noted that the wife had lodged a report against her husband and his family members for demand of dowry and had executed an affidavit alleging that she had given divorce to the respondent with her consent.
The Court held that the wife's refusal to establish physical relations with her husband and her subsequent desertion constituted cruelty. “As discussed above, appellant/wife resided in her in-laws house for only 3 days and during this period there was no co-habitation between the parties and after since then the appellant/wife and respondent/husband have resided separately for last more than 11 years,” the Court remarked.
Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the appeal.
Cause Title: X v. Y