Person entitled to divorce if spouse is be mentally unsound: Supreme Court

A husband or a wife is entitled to divorce if either spouse is found to be mentally unsound or indulges in cruelty, the Supreme Court has held.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan in a judgement said under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriages Act, either of the spouse can seek divorce, provided sufficient evidence is placed to justify the claim.

The apex court upheld the appeal of Pankaj Mahajan, challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court's refusal to grant him divorce despite producing medical and other evidence to prove that his wife Dimple suffered from schizophrenia and subjected him to humiliation, assaults and threatened suicide.

The high court had refused to grant him divorce and quashed the decree of divorce granted to him by a matrimonial court in Ropar district.

"Without proper discussion and adequate reasons, the high court rejected the evidence of the appellant-husband as PW-4. A perusal of his evidence clearly shows the agony and treatment meted out immediately after the marriage due to mental disorder, unsound mind of the respondent-wife.

"From the materials placed on record, we are satisfied that the appellant-husband has brought cogent materials on record to show that the respondent-wife is suffering from mental disorder, i.e., schizophrenia. From the side of the appellant husband, various doctors and other witnesses were examined to prove that the respondent-wife was suffering from mental disorder," Justice Sathasivam, writing the judgement, said.