Cruelty as a ground of divorce : PANKAJ KUMAR & CO. | Divorce Lawyers in Delhi
Cruelty as a ground of divorce : PANKAJ KUMAR & CO. | Divorce Lawyers in Delhi
Latest news May 08, 2018 444
Supreme Court of India : Few Isolated Incidents of Long Past cannot be Cruelty and Ground for Divorce
Case name: Suman Singh v. Sanjay Singh (Supreme Court)
In the case, the husband had pleaded 9 instances which, according to him, constituted “cruelty” within the meaning of Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act entitling him to claim dissolution of marriage against the appellant. The impugned instances in the case essentially related to the appellant’s behaviour with the respondent and his family members.
In the case, the appellant prayed for restitution of conjugal rights. The Supreme Court allowed the wife’s appeal and made the following key observations:
That almost all the grounds taken by the respondent in his petition were stale or/and isolated and did not subsist to enable the respondent to seek a decree for dissolution of marriage. In other words, the incidents of cruelty alleged had taken place even, according to the respondent, immediately after marriage. They were solitary incidents relating to the behavior of the appellant.
Second, assuming that one or more grounds constituted an act of cruelty, yet we find that the acts complained of were condoned by the parties due to their subsequent conduct inasmuch as admittedly both lived together till 2006 and the appellant gave birth to their second daughter in 2006.
That the incidents which occurred prior to 2006 could not be relied on to prove the instances of cruelty because they were deemed to have been condoned by the acts of the parties. So far as the instances alleged after 2006 were concerned, they being isolated instances, did not constitute an act of cruelty.
That a petition seeking divorce on some isolated incidents alleged to have occurred 8-10 years prior to filing of the date of petition cannot furnish a subsisting cause of action to seek divorce after 10 years or so of occurrence of such incidents.
That the incidents alleged should be of recurring nature or continuing one and they should be in near proximity with the filing of the petition. Few isolated incidents of long past and that too found to have been condoned due to compromising behavior of the parties cannot constitute an act of cruelty within the meaning of Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act.
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