The Gujarat High Court issued a notice to a woman who obtained a divorce from her husband, primarily citing cruelty related to the fact that her husband’s sister had married outside their caste, a detail that was allegedly concealed from her.

According to the husband’s representative, the couple had an arranged marriage in 2018. The wife left her marital home just two days after discovering that her sister-in-law had married into a community she deemed lower on the societal caste hierarchy.

In 2020, the woman filed for divorce in the Bhavnagar family court, claiming cruelty. She argued that her husband had hidden information about his sister’s inter-caste marriage. Although he mentioned having two sisters, he did not disclose a third sister who had married outside their caste, a fact she learned only at the wedding.

Additionally, she claimed that her husband filed a police complaint alleging threats to his life from her family and sent it to her workplace.

The husband subsequently filed a suit seeking restoration of conjugal rights, asking the court to compel his wife to return. On September 30, 2024, the Bhavnagar family court dismissed his petition while granting the wife’s request for divorce. The husband then challenged this decision through two separate appeals, seeking the High Court’s intervention to quash the divorce order.

After a preliminary hearing, Justices Biren Vaishnav and DM Desai observed that the judgment and decree in question indicated that one of the primary grounds for the wife’s claim of cruelty was the fact that her husband’s sister had married someone from another community.

Following the notice issued to the woman, the High Court has scheduled a joint hearing for both appeals on January 20.