New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has said filing
of criminal cases by the wife would not constitute "mental
cruelty" and declined to grant divorce to a man on the ground
that his wife filed such cases to harass him and his family
members following a matrimonial dispute.
Justice Kailash Gambhir allowed an appeal filed by a
woman challenging the trial court's order granting divorce on
her husband's plea that he and his family members were facing
criminal cases lodged by his wife, which constituted
harassment and cruelty.
Setting aside the trial court's findings, Justice Gambhir
said "this court does not find any merit in the reasoning
given by the learned trial court that since there were more
criminal cases filed by the appellant(wife), therefore, filing
of such criminal cases would constitute cruelty to the
respondent(husband)".
"As per the settled position of law ,looking into the
background of the aforementioned criminal cases filed by the
wife, it is difficult to accept the argument of the counsel
for the husband that the same were filed by the wife just with
a view to harassing her husband and the same were without any
basis", the court said while referring to the Supreme Court
judgements.
PTI
First Published: Monday, April 11, 2011, 18:42