Forcing the husband to live separately was cruelty and deprived him of conjugal rights, the Allahabad High Court ruled and granted divorce to a man whose wife had insisted on separate living. She issued warnings against any try by him to enter her room, threatening legal consequences and dire consequences to herself. A Division Bench comprising Justice Ranjan Roy and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi held.
The Court observed that persistence by the wife to live separately amounted to abandonment of the matrimonial home. It emerged that cohabitation, an essential ingredient in marriage, had been denied by the wife, thus making life physically and mentally cruel for the husband. A plea by the man that his wife had deprived him of his conjugal rights was accordingly upheld since she did not dispute it.
Married in 2016-her first marriage and his second, the relationship between the two soured within months. By 2018, the husband had filed for divorce on the grounds of harassment and threats from his wife. While initially she appeared before the family court, she subsequently did not respond to the summons; hence, the case was heard ex-parte.
In January 2023, the family court rejected the divorce due to insufficient evidence and not being able to provide the details of the threats. He then appealed to the High Court. However, the High Court held that the family court erred in dismissing testimony of husband’s father and misquoted previous marriage of husband. “The testimonies of the family members hold importance in the matrimonial disputes and cannot be discarded on the basis of prejudice”, the Court stated.
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