Wife's demand for separate house without cause amounts to cruelty: Bombay High Court

Wife's demand for a separate residence amounts to cruelty when there's no justifiable cause for seeking the same, said the Bombay high court while granting a divorce to a man whose wife deserted him within three months of marriage.

A division bench of justices VA Naik and AM Badar of the Nagpur bench of the HC observed: "It is necessary to note that the wife has, without any justifiable cause, left the company of the husband for more than 7-8 years and the husband was entitled to a decree of divorce, in the circumstances of the case..."

The HC was hearing an appeal filed by the man against a family court order, refusing to grant him divorce even after finding out that the wife was "meting out cruelty".

The couple's marriage was solemnised on December 13, 2006, and the wife left him on March 5, 2007, never to return to the matrimonial home.

The petitioner's advocate UJ Deshpande argued that in the three months of cohabitation the wife constantly demanded to live separately without any reasonable cause. He also said after the family court held that the wife was not justified in asking the husband to stay separately and leave the matrimonial home, it ought to have granted a decree of divorce in favour of the husband.

Apart from that, the family court did not accept the wife's evidence on the ill-treatment meted out to her by her mother-in-law, so it ought to have dissolved the marriage by a decree of divorce, Deshpande argued.

After mediation, the man had arranged for a separate residence in accordance with his financial condition. The wife, however, refused to reside in the chawl. Deshpande added that this very attitude of hers further demonstrated cruelty on her part.

JB Gandhi, advocate for the wife, argued that the man was not ready to reside with her in a separate residence and had arranged for an inconvenient accommodation in a "tin shed without any facilities".

He further argued that there was sufficient cause for the wife to seek a separate residence as her mother-in-law was mistreating her. The wife tried to show that her husband's elder brother too was divorced due to the mother-in-law's cruelty.

However, the HC observed, "The husband was mentally tormented because of the acts of the wife in a span of less than three months. The wife was unsuccessful in proving that her mother-in-law had treated her with such cruelty that it was difficult for her to stay in the matrimonial home."