Forcing husband-wife to live together despite intense hate for each other is cruelty: Allahabad High Court

Forcing an estranged husband and wife to live together despite their intense hate towards each other would amount to cruelty, the Allahabad High Court recently held while granting divorce to a couple [Ashok Jha v Pratibha Jha]..Justices Saumitra Dayal Singh and Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal observed that forcing the parties to live together is potentially more prejudicial to public interest than the dissolution of the marriage bond."Both parties have lodged criminal cases against each other and have serious disputes about the properties. Apart from this, both parties are also making allegations against each other of having relationship outside of marriage, therefore, forcing them to live together despite their intense hate towards each other will amount to cruelty," the Court noted.The Court also directed the husband to pay the wife a permanent alimony of ₹1 crore within three months. In the event of any delayed payment, an annual interest rate of 6% would be levied from the date of the judgment until the actual payment date, the Court added..The Court was hearing an appeal filed by the husband who challenged the dismissal of his divorce petition by a family court on November 7, 2019.The couple got married in 2002. Initially, the husband secured an uncontested divorce decree in 2016. However, the wife submitted an application to recall the divorce decree, which was allowed. Following this, the divorce petition was reinstated and both parties presented their arguments before the family court..The counsel for the husband argued that the wife had falsely accused him in criminal cases which ultimately ended in his acquittal. He further asserted that these unfounded claims along with other legal conflicts caused emotional distress and amounted to cruelty. Further, he contended that the couple had been living apart since 2014 and that the bitterness from these legal battles has made reconciliation impossible..Taking into consideration the facts of the present case, the Court noted that while the husband had not explicitly proven cruelty in their day-to-day life, the wife's actions including filing false criminal cases and continuous legal disputes, constituted cruelty.“It is clear that though the appellant could not clearly establish the cruelty on the part of the respondent till filing a divorce petition in their day-to-day life, this fact is also undisputed that the respondent had lodged one case under Sections-498A, 420 506 and 507 IPC in 2014, before the filing of the divorce petition by the appellant," the Court's order stated..The Court further relied on Supreme Court judgment in Naveen Kohli v Neelu Kohli, (2006) wherein it was held that filing false complaints against a spouse constituted an act of cruelty..“In the present case, both the parties have levelled allegation against each other for not maintaining the sanctity of marriage and their involvement in relationship outside of marriage and they have been living separately for more than ten years and number of complaints including the criminal complaints have been filed by the respondent against the appellant and every effort has been made to harass and torture him. Appellant had also filed a case against the respondent. Even, at this stage, respondent is not ready for any conciliation with the appellant," the High Court added..Therefore, it allowed the husband's plea and dissolved the marriage citing the cruelty suffered by the husband and the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. .Advocates Rahul Sahai and Rajeev Kumar represented the appellant-husband..[Read Order]