If Wife Insists To Stay With Husband Without Any Extraneous Reason & Husband Refuses To Keep Her, It Can’t Be Cruelty By Wife: Chhattisgarh HC
The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that if the wife insists on staying with her husband without any extraneous reason and the husband refuses to keep her, then it cannot be cruelty by the wife towards her husband.
The Court was deciding an instant appeal filed by the appellant/wife against the judgment and decree passed by the Judge, Family Court whereby the application of the respondent/husband under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 was allowed.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Goutam Bhaduri and Justice Deepak Kumar Tiwari observed, “It is obvious that if the wife insists to stay with the husband and without any extraneous reason or official cause, if husband refuses to keep her it cannot be said to be a cruelty by the wife towards the husband for such insistence. During the matrimonial ties the reciprocal respect and regard to each other and the company is necessary. In absence thereof any forceful imposition of condition by either side may lead to a matrimonial disruption.”
The Bench added that if the husband expects the wife to stay at a place other than his company without any sufficient cause, it cannot be stated that because of resistance by the wife to stay apart-it would be cruelty by the wife.
Advocate Krishna Tandon appeared for the appellant/wife while Advocate CJK Rao appeared for the respondent/husband.
Factual Background -
The parties got married and out of the said wedlock, a girl child was born. The respondent/husband was posted as Siksha Karmi, Grade-1 and after marriage, as per the social custom, the appellant/wife had returned to her matrimonial house situated at a village after performing ‘gouna’ and both the husband and wife lived happily together for about 6 months. It was alleged that initially, the wife did not like the marriage as it was performed in the rural area and thereafter, she joined B.Ed course and after finishing of the said examination, the husband had gone to take back her but she stated that she would reside at her maternal house and during such period, she got conceived also. After some days, when the husband had gone to the village, the wife refused to go with him as there were no proper medical facilities at the village of her in-laws and she delivered a baby girl. In the year 2010, the wife filed a police complaint for dowry at police station and thereafter, the husband had called various social meetings, which were convened at Sahu Samaj, Saja in the month of December, 2013 but the Appellant/wife did not turn up in the said meetings.
In 2014, a social meeting was scheduled wherein the wife imposed a condition that she would not go to village Barduli and reside separately to which, the husband accepted and they both started residing at village Pipariya. After some time, again the behavior of the wife changed and she started threatening her husband that she will commit suicide and stated that he should keep her at village Pipariya and she will not go to village Barduli though as per the advice given in the social meeting, they were supposed to live separately only for 4 to 6 months from the family. The wife filed an application for maintenance before the Family Court and thereafter, the husband also filed an application for restitution of conjugal rights before the Court and the same was dismissed. Thereafter, the husband sought divorce on the ground of cruelty. The Trial Court passed a decree in favour of the husband on the ground of cruelty and allowed the application, therefore, the instant appeal was filed by the appellant.
The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel noted, “… if we examine the facts of the present case and the grounds taken by the Respondent/husband in this Appeal, we are of the opinion that none of the grounds has been satisfied individually or collectively so as to entitle the Respondent/husband to claim decree of divorce.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment of the Family Court.
Cause Title- Kalyani Bai v. Tejnath @ Kejwaram Sahu (Neutral Citation: 2023:CGHC25684-DB)
